


Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by MoonbeamDancer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:51:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonbeamDancer/pseuds/MoonbeamDancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Human!AU. Dean's a senior at Arcadia Academy and Gabriel is his teacher. Sparks fly between the two while working on the school's production of Macbeth. It's wrong and they know it, they just can't help it. Is it worth it if they get caught?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 Debriel Mini Bang on LJ, it's also got art, go look at candyandpie's journal if you want to see it.

"Alright everyone, pencils down, the test is over."  
An audible groan came from several of the students, as they dropped their pencils on their desks after furiously writing in last-minute answers.  
"It's not that bad, I'm sure you all did your best." Mr. Novak said as he picked up the students' tests. "Thank you." he continued, as a student handed hers in. "One more thing, people, and then you are free to go."  
There was a louder groan from the class, along with at least one thump indicating a head making contact with its' owners desk.  
"It's not that bad, I swear." Gabriel said, dropping the stack of tests onto his desk. "Okay, people, I'm telling every class this. The Theater-N-Talent group is looking for volunteers to help with the technical side of the spring production of Macbeth. If any of you are looking for extra credit to boost your World History grade, please see Mr. D'Artigo after school in the auditorium. Those of you who are in the land of barely passing or failing, it is strongly recommended."  
With that, the bell for the end of class rang, and most of the students left the room. A few stayed behind to ask for clarifications about the test, and Gabriel answered their questions. The test counted for a fourth of their grade this semester. Soon they were gone and Gabriel was left with one remaining student, Dean Winchester.  
"Can I help you, Dean?" he asked, sitting at his desk.

Dean was a relatively new student; his family had moved to town a couple of months ago, due to his father's job. Gabriel didn't know much about Dean, but he did know that he was rather bright for his age and had a younger brother. If Dean had wanted to, he could have taken all AP classes, not just AP World History.  
"Did Mr. D'Artigo say what he needed help with or just that he needed help?"  
"Just that help was needed, but I do know that they need help with building and striking the set and with props, I believe. Would you be interested? I'm about to head down there myself. Balthazar can always use an extra hand with the lights." Gabriel scooped up the tests and put them with another classes' tests as well as his grade book, into his messenger bag and stood to get his coat.  
"I think props or building would be all right. I need to stop by the freshmen building and get my brother, though."  
"That's fine. Do you need to do anything else?"  
"No, that's all. Oh, I need to call my dad."

As they left the classroom, Dean called and left a message for his father, explaining why he was staying late at school, and not to worry about Sam.  
"Think your brother will be okay with hanging out in the auditorium?"  
"Yeah, he'll just use the time to do homework. So, Mr. D'Artigo's first name is Balthazar? What kind of name is that?"  
"It's religious. He's named after an angel, just like most of the people in our family."  
"You're related?" Dean asked, opening the door, to the freshmen building for Gabriel.  
"Thank you, yes we are. We're cousins. My dad and his mom are brother and sister. Don't use his first name around him, though. He prefers that students called him Mr. D'Artigo."  
"I can do that." Dean replied, as Gabriel followed him up a staircase and the pair turned right in to the hallway and walked down it. "What's your first name, just out of curiosity?"  
"Gabriel."  
"After the Archangel? It suits you."  
"Yeah, it does. Sometimes."

They came to a locker that had a small boy in front of it, putting away books.  
"Hey Sammy."  
"Hi Dean. Who's this? Are you in trouble?"  
"No, I'm not. This is my World History teacher, Mr. Novak. Mr. Novak, this is my little brother Sam Winchester."  
"Hello Sam." Gabriel said, holding out his hand.  
Sam shook it. "Hi, Mr. Novak." He shut his locker door and slipping on his backpack, the three began to walk back the way Dean and Gabriel had come.  
"So if you're not in trouble, then why is he with you?" Sam asked.  
"Because the Theater teacher needs help with Macbeth and I'm going to see what needs to be done."  
"You, act? I can't see you running around in tights, proclaiming Shakespeare." Sam snorted softly.  
"I'm not going to act, dork. I'm going to ask to be on the tech crew. Props or actually building the set."  
"Props would be a part of costumes, but I could see you doing either one." Sam replied as they all walked back down the stairs and to the theater building.

The theater building was round and surrounded by a moat. There were bridges that connected the brick building to the rest of campus and catfish and turtles in the moat. There was also a koi fish and, rumor had it, that a student at the nearby college had kept it as a pet, and had been forced to get rid of it by dumping it in the moat. The small group crossed one of the bridges and entered the building. It wasn't hard to find where they needed to be, the amount of noise coming from the open doors was their first clue.

"Again from the top, three witches. Don't mumble, _enunciate_ , ladies, please and thank you! We are doing The Scottish Play, the very least you could do is make sure you're heard clearly and not letting The Bard roll in his grave. Action!"  
Dean, Gabriel and Sam quietly walked in, Sam picking a seat in the middle of the auditorium and sitting down.  
"Scottish Play?" Dean asked. "I thought they was doing Macbeth."  
"They are. It's an old theater superstition. When you're performing Macbeth, you call it "The Scottish Play". If you don't, you invite bad luck, and a bad run of the show," Gabriel replied softly, setting down his bag, a few rows ahead of Sam and motioned for Dean to do the same.

There was another failed attempt by the witches, this time not their fault but that of the prop department. The dry ice wasn't boiling properly, someone had used too much, and the witches were having problems being seen instead of understood. Balthazar called for a five minute break.  
"Ah, Gabriel, there you are. Please tell me, you're here to help?" Balthazar asked, rubbing his temples with one hand.  
"Here to do the lights, if you want, Bal."  
"Please. And who's this?" Balthazar asked, his eyes on Dean.  
"Dean Winchester." Dean piped up before Gabriel could. "Mr. Novak told me that you were looking for help. What did you need help with, I heard about the set and props."  
"The set, props, lighting and sound if you want to help Gabriel, sorry, Mr. Novak. Um, being an usher when the time comes, feel free to take your pick, you're early enough to do so."  
"I can do anything you needed, I think. Or at least try, but I'll go with props and maybe lighting."  
"Good, good. Props could use a hand, the nit in charge now keeps messing everything up, can't keep things tidy to save her life. Gabriel, I need you to look at the light board. I'm positive that this will be its last hurrah, and I need someone to make sure it doesn't catch the place on fire."  
Gabriel nodded and began to make his way to the light booth.

"Who's in charge of props?" Dean asked, following Balthazar as he walked backstage.  
"Ruby. Nice girl, but-"  
"Not what you're looking for." Dean supplied.  
Balthazar nodded. "She needs the help, she's overwhelmed and can't admit it. I want you to help things run smoothly and organized, that her main hang up."  
"I can do that, I noticed that the dry ice was a bit on the thick side."  
"That it was and here we are, the prop room. Ruby, you in here?" Balthazar called, stepping into the room.  
"I am." came a call from further in the room. There was a scuffle and a series of loud clangs as Ruby tried to make herself seen. She untangled herself from the pile of metal armor she was fighting with and came over to Balthazar and Dean. She was dusty and vaguely sooty smelling. Dean thought he had seen a wielding torch somewhere in the room and figured that had something to do with it. Her clothing was rumpled and her shirt was buttoned crookedly.  
"Who else is back here?" Balthazar asked her.  
Ruby looked at the ground, slightly embarrassed. "Ash." She whispered. She wasn't actually embarrassed to be caught making out in the prop room, but of the fact that it was Ash.  
"Ash, get out here. Now." Balthazar called, looking over Ruby's shoulder.

There was another rattle and various sounds of things being banged around and Ash stumbled out, coming up to the group. "Hey, Mr. D'Artigo." he said breezily.  
"Hello Ash, get out of here and stop distracting my prop master, you don't actually need or want to be here." Balthazar replied, shooing the mullet head out of the room. He turned to Ruby. "Ash? Seriously, Ash? Why are you with him? He's a total stoner and you could do so much better than him, dear."

"I know. It was mainly for fun, I wasn't expecting you to come back here today." She offered a hand streaked with dust and splattered with paint to Dean. "I'm Ruby."  
"Dean." Dean replied, shaking it and looking at the blond girl in front of him and the room.  
"Dean's here to help with props and lights for the show. Show him around and I need the swords for later in the play."  
"Alright then, I can do that." Ruby replied. She looked quickly for the swords Balthazar was talking about. The best way to describe the room, was "organized chaos". The worst was simply "chaos".   
"Ah, give me a minute, I know they're here."

Dean could see what Balthazar had meant when it came to Ruby; she was nice, yet disorganized like mad. It was when she began to throw around teacups and what looked to be a porcelain white rabbit that Dean saw what was needed. Ducking the matching dormouse figurine tossed in his general direction, Dean grabbed the swords and offered them to Balthazar.  
"These the ones, Mr. D'Artigo?'  
"Yes, thank you." Balthazar took the offered weapons and turned to leave, calling over his shoulder that the prop room needed to be cleaned and organized a bit before they really got into things show-wise.  
"He's totally right." Ruby agreed, looking around and grabbing a broom.  
"Then let me help, between the two of us, things will get done faster."

Ruby grinned and watched the new kid as he sorted through a box of fake severed limbs. He was rather attractive, graceful even. Ruby continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye as they both decided what was to be done and where things would go. His hands were nice a bit rough around the edges, and Ruby liked the way the ring he wore flashed in the light. She was so busy watching Dean at one point that she nearly dropped a box of candle holders she had been in the middle of putting up. She caught the box and slid it onto the shelf, the contents shifting slightly as she handled it. Hearing her name called, she jumped off the step stool, and came over to Dean.  
"All of this is scrap fabric, shoes and beads. What's it doing here?" Dean asked, gesturing to a stack of boxes  
"Costume must have dumped in here." She glanced through a box or two. "Awhile ago, by the looks of it."  
"Toss it back at them. It's their shit, not ours, let them take care of it." Dean snorted, picking up a box. "Where are they?"  
"Through that door and down the hall." Ruby grabbed another box, brushing against Dean as she did so. There was a boot heel poking out of it. "Follow me." She shifted the box to her hip and opened the door, Dean trailing behind.

"So why are you here?" she asked over her shoulder as they walked down the hall. She waited for Dean to catch up, and her arm brushed his.  
"Need the grade. Not doing very well in Mr. Novak's class," Dean replied, stepping away to put a bit of space between himself and Ruby. He didn't really know what, but there was something about this girl he didn't like, something that put him slightly on edge. Mainly the way she brushed up against him. Once was a mistake, twice was on purpose. They got to the door and he offered to take her box while Ruby opened the door. She balanced her box on his, Ruby's hands sliding over his deliberately when she picked it back up.  
"Ruby, stop it."  
"Stop what?"  
"All the touching. I'm not interested and while you may not need this extra credit grade, I do, so if we could just be professional about things, that would be just great."  
"You sure about that?" Ruby asked coyly.  
"Absolutely. I'm not interested in hooking up with you at all, sorry."  
"Nothing to be sorry about Dean," Ruby said, setting her box on a nearby table. "It's my fault. Thought you'd be interested in hanging out together sometime is all."  
"It's a nice thought, but I really should concentrate on my grade, sorry." Dean lied.

Ruby nodded as they left. "It's fine, no worries." she heard herself say. Meanwhile, a part of her wanted to know why Dean wasn't interested. Most boys were. She was Ruby McConnell after all, the richest, most popular girl at Arcadia Academy.  
"Good, let's get back to work." Dean replied, walking back down the hall.

Soon the room, while still messy, was starting to look better. Both Dean and Ruby had made progress in organizing and throwing out old or damaged props and getting rid of all the old bottles of fake blood. The weapons locker had been cleaned out and the swords laid out on the table as they inspected the fake weaponry.  
"Most of this isn't bad. Hilts need to be redone on some. This fake ax needs a replacement blade, and the firearms need to be cleaned. But other then that, the weapons look good." Dean began to catalog what needed to be fixed and what could be stored away. After a couple of hours, the room had been swept, the trash taken out and the prop table had been cleared for them to work on, along with what they had already done.  
"Holy crap, I forgot what this place used to look like." Ruby said, staring at the organized mess that was beginning to make sense once more.  
"I told you that getting some of Costume's old junk out of here would help." Dean replied, wiping his hands on his pants, leaving behind streaks of dust on the fabric.  
They turned off the lights and shut the door behind themselves, walking back into the auditorium.

"So how's it looking?" Gabriel called, walking down from the light booth.  
"Good, couple more days and you won't recognize it." Ruby called back, grabbing her coat and bag. "Thanks for the help, Dean."  
"No problem, Ruby." Dean got his things and walked over to Sam. "Ready?"  
Sam put the book he was reading down. "Yep. Had a bit of fun watching rehearsals. Wound up helping direct the sword play for a bit."  
"Oh really?" Dean asked as Sam packed away his book and got his things together.  
"Yeah, Mr. D'Artigo liked it. Said I had a good eye for direction."  
"He's usually right about that," Gabriel said, joining the two. "Dean we meet back here tomorrow after school. Feel free to go straight back to props when you get here." he added, turning to Dean.  
"Okay then. Tomorrow it is."  
"Let me get my things. Do you two need a ride home?"  
"Nah, Dad gave me the car today, we're good. Thanks though." Dean replied.  
"You're welcome, but at least let me walk you to your car." Gabriel got his things, and they left for the parking lot.

"This is your car?"  
"The family car. And one day it'll be mine."  
" _This_ is your car?" Gabriel repeated, gesturing at the sleek Impala in front of him, a bad case of car lust running in his veins.  
"Yeah, Gabriel, this is my car." Dean replied, as Sam got in and waited for Dean. "Can I call you Gabriel outside of school?"  
"With a car like this, you can call me Shirley outside of school. Damn, this is a fantastic car, I want one!" The words just fell out of Gabriel's mouth.  
"Well I'm sorry, but she's kinda one of a kind. But I'd be more than happy to take you for a ride sometime." Dean said opening his door.  
"Dean, quit flirting with your teacher and let's go." Sam laughed, watching the two of them.  
"I'm not flirting!" Dean shot back.  
"And that line's worked on how many girls?" Sam retorted.  
"It's _not_ a line!" Dean hissed at him before turning back to his teacher. "It isn't I swear."  
"And _that's_ not one, either!" Gabriel could hear Sam say from his seat.  
"Line or not, I'd gladly take you up on it...if I weren't your teacher." Gabriel said. "See you tomorrow Dean, drive safe." And he began to walk away towards his car.  
The words "Night Gabriel, you too." chased after him.

It was after sunset when the boys arrived home, Dean pulled up to the curb of the house they were renting. John's job with the army may have moved them all over hell and half of Georgia, but they did stay in nice places, most of the time. The engine cut off with a rumble, and the sound of silence rushed to fill the void. The house they were staying in was a split level ranch, painted blue with a pale cream trim. The lot was a decent size, and the tree out front was nice to read under. At seventeen, Dean thought it was the nicest place they had lived in, and he had seen a lot of places. After his mother had died in a fire when he was four, John reenlisted in the army and they had moved around the country ever since. John had started out as a regular soldier before Dean was born; he had served in Vietnam, and after coming back, had made his way into the intelligence branch. If there was a secret, John could find it.

His tenacity had earned him the nickname of Bloodhound from his friends and co workers. He was that good. Some joked that John could tell if someone had a secret just by the scent of their sweat. Dean was inclined to agree with them. There were just times that he seemed to know when Dean or Sam was hiding something, and like a dog with a bone, he'd gnaw at it until they broke and told him what it was. Dean hated that. It was a rare day when he could keep something from John Winchester, and when it did happen, Dean was grateful.

They got out of the car, and Sam ran ahead of him, unlocking the door and calling for their dad as Dean caught the screen door and let himself in. The front door slid shut with a muffled thump and Dean shrugged off his coat. The motion was followed by the sound of Sam's voice, as he told John about their day. John stood at the stove, a pot bubbling in front of him as he stirred and listened to Sam. He smiled hello to Dean and asked Sam to keep stirring the sauce pot as he checked on the noodles.  
"Sam says you're helping with the school play?"  
"Extra credit, props and lights, should be fun." Dean took the offered linguine noodle and nodded his approval. 

Dinner that night was spinach and regular linguine, with scallops and a light cream sauce. He snuck a taste of the sauce and grinned- lemon and thyme, just like mom used to make it. If there was one thing that Mary had prided herself on when she was alive, it was her ability to cook. John always swore up and down that her pork tenderloin roast was what got him to propose to her. Mary had denied it, but it had made her happy to know that it had been worthy of such a thing. The only thing that surpassed her cooking ability, was her baking. She had written everything down, along with a few variations, but John didn't really stray too far from the tried and true. Dean had inherited his love of food from her, and had proved to be rather adept in the kitchen. He had more of a talent for sweets, but he could make dinner like nobody's business and had made several of his own recipes. John and Sam were willing test subjects and always let him know if a new recipe or a tweak to an old one was pass or fail.

John still held the Halloween Dean made "feetloaf and mashed brains" as a favorite. Watching his oldest shape the meatloaf into feet and the mashed potatoes into brains with the help of a jello mold, had been interesting. The carrots were renamed stakes and the cherry kool-aid was called blood. Sam loved it and asked for feetloaf and brains several times in the following year. John added the recipe to the book and thought that Mary would approve.

The three were soon sitting at the table eating and talking about their day, nothing earth shattering had happened, but it had been interesting all around. Later when Dean and John were washing dishes, John asked about the play and why exactly Dean was doing this, as he didn't actually need it.  
"Honestly? Because it sounded like fun. I miss working with props and working on lights is different."  
John nodded as he washed. He knew that Dean liked the theater; both the boys did. Dean couldn't act for squat, but there was just something about the bits and pieces of props that drew the boy. Dean had once told him it was like putting together a puzzle and getting all the right parts together made him happy.  
"Is it just you doing lights?"  
"Nope, I'm helping Mr. Novak, but at the moment it's just props with Ruby. Though Sam did forget to tell you that Mr. D'Artigo let him help direct and thought he was really good at it."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah."

Later in the week, the prop room was totally turned around, and Dean and Ruby were mixing a batch of blood for Balthazar's approval. It wouldn't be needed for another month, but the time could be used to get it right.  
"The color is right, but I think a bit of cornstarch to thicken it would work." Ruby stirred the container and pulled put the spoon, watching the blood drizzle back in.  
"Half a teaspoon of cornstarch would work." came a voice from behind. Gabriel stepped up next to them and took the spoon from Ruby, stirring it for himself, before sticking a finger in and tasting it.  
"Mmmm, needs mint." He grabbed a bottle of mint flavoring and poured in several drops, stirred again and tasted. "Better." He pulled out the spoon and watched the drizzle. "Oh yeah, this is _much_ better. Anyone want a taste?"  
"Ew, no." Ruby recoiled a bit, but she did get a squeeze bottle out for the blood.  
Dean laughed and shook his head. "No way man."  
"Suit yourself. Dean, I need to see you in the light booth."  
They left Ruby to the blood and splatter practice.

When they got to the booth, Gabriel made a spot for Dean to sit on the platform behind the light booth. The platform was raised a bit off the floor and that was where the music and sound equipment was kept for shows. He offered a water bottle from the small cooler he kept up there to Dean, before taking a sip from his own. It tended to get warm when the door was shut during shows, from the heat the music and light boards put off.  
"So how is it so far. Enjoying working in props?"  
Dean nodded, sipping from his bottle. "The place is a mess, but even that's enjoyable."  
"Thing's all good with Ruby?" Gabriel began to fiddle with the board, moving some of the switches up and down, checking on the lights they corresponded with, with one hand and taking a sip with the other.  
"She's okay. Well better now that she knows to keep her hands off my ass." he quipped.

Gabriel choked and inhaled his water. "What?" he gasped out.  
"Yeah, she's all hands, couldn't keep her off me until I told her to stop."  
"And has she?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well as long as you guys are safe-"  
"I told her to stop because I'm not interested." Dean interrupted.  
"Not interested in slutty girls or not..."  
"Slutty, yes. Girls, no." Dean said quietly.

Gabriel stared at him while Dean waited for him to put two and two together. It didn't take long, Dean could see the light go on in his eyes.  
"Oh. Oh! Seriously? Are you really?"  
"Gay? Yes." Dean admitted softly.  
"Holy...wow. I'm a little surprised. Have you come out?" The words again just fell out of Gabriel's mouth of their own accord and he slapped his hand over his mouth. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that, it's none of my business." he apologized.  
"It's okay. Yes, I'm gay, but no, I don't advertise it. We've moved around a lot, and to be blatantly out isn't always a good thing." Dean smiled.  
Gabriel nodded, moving another switch and watching as the lights faded to a single spotlight. He knew where Dean was coming from; being bisexual wasn't easy either. He had dated a couple of the other teachers, none of them men, but both times the relationship hadn't been serious and had ended quietly.

"What about you? Know if any of the other students are gay? What about teachers?"  
Gabriel winced, Dean had hit a little too close to home. "I don't know about teachers, but there are a few students, I think. They mainly tend to keep it to themselves." he replied, hoping Dean hadn't seen the wince.

Dean had and filed it away for later examination. There was something about Gabriel he liked and he wanted to know more about him. Like, maybe, if he was gay or not. But now was not the time, so Dean decided to change the subject, and he asked if Gabriel needed some help on the lights or if he wanted to move ahead to musical cues.

"Where did you find this kid, Gabriel? He's amazing, does practically everything." Balthazar said one day while they were waiting for students to show up in the auditorium. "Seriously, the kid's a jack of all trades. Where did he learn it?"  
"His family moves around a lot. I think he picked it up along the way." Gabriel replied, nibbling on a bit of licorice.  
"Really? Well, I wish I could thank whoever taught him. The prop room has never looked better, and what he's done with the set... if he wanted to he could make a small fortune in carpentry. How's he coming along with lighting?"  
"Good, good," Gabriel said, semi-distracted. "Nothing's blown up yet, and he's pointed out a few things to help the board live a little longer. But, yes, we will be needing a new one."

Gabriel toyed with his licorice before taking a bite. Things had been pretty damn good between  
Dean and him. Over the past few weeks, he had pulled Dean more and more into the light booth, partly because he actually needed Dean to help run and test things, but partly to give the kid a break from Ruby. According to Dean, she had stopped with the wandering hands, but was still flirting with him. She seemed unable to take a gentle hint that it just wasn't going to happen between them, or unwilling to. Since Dean didn't exactly want to come out to her with the real reason why, he had asked for a bit of help.

As a result, the two had gotten close, and Gabriel was afraid that it might be a little closer then was appropriate. He really did like Dean and was concerned for him, but it was hard to see where the line began to blur, and that concern became something more. Dean's flirting with him wasn't helping matters either. It wasn't blatantly obvious. Dean was rather coy about it, so much that Gabriel had missed it the first time, and the second time Gabriel wasn't totally sure that Dean had realized what he was doing. When Gabriel realized that he was flirting back, just a little bit, it scared him. He pulled back and was trying his best to reaffirm the fact that he was Dean's teacher to himself. Soon, the students began to trickle in and the two teachers got back to work.

Ruby watched as Dean and a few other students were pulling together the set that would become the castle. Her eyes flashed as Dean scooted under a pair of platforms and readjusted the clamp that was holding them together. The motion caused his shirt to ride up and expose his stomach. She had tried to get him interested in her, but she was failing so far. Nr. Novak needing his help so much wasn't helping things move along, either, it was time to go about this in another way. Ruby quietly walked out the back door of the stage, easing it shut behind her, and headed for the library. Dean's little brother hadn't shown up and with a little snooping, she had found out that he had decided to wait in the library instead.

She found him in the stacks of the History section, and watched for a moment before walking up to him and tapping him on the shoulder. "Hi, you're Sam right?" she asked when he turned his head. "Dean's brother?"  
"Yeah. I remember you from the auditorium." He slid a book off the shelf and turned to face her fully.  
"I'm Ruby. I wanted to introduce myself earlier, but didn't get the chance." Ruby stepped back so Sam could get off the step stool. She grinned at him; he was a cute kid.  
"It's nice to meet you, Ruby." Sam smiled back.  
Ruby looked at the book in Sam's hands. "Civil War, huh? For fun or for class?"  
"Class. Need to do a report on the lives of the soldiers."  
"Interesting, who's your teacher?"  
"Mr. Hinkley." Sam said.  
"Oh God!" Ruby groaned. "I remember him, U.S. History, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."  
"Man, that voice of his. Mr. Monotone, seriously. Tell me something; does he still come in the room, set his bag on the table, do a few things on the projector, tell you what chapter to read for the rest of class, and then spend the rest of the period reading the paper at his desk?"  
"Yeah, he does." Sam nodded his head. "Drives me crazy." he hissed.  
"It's because he's actually a coach." Ruby replied.  
"Seriously?"  
"Yeah, he coaches the soccer team. Only teaches History to round out his hours in his contract."  
Ruby scanned the shelves behind Sam and selected a few books. "Here, try these. They're good for troop movements and what the field hospitals were like at the time. Descriptions are kinda graphic, just so you know. Would not recommend eating while reading."  
"Thanks for the warning." Sam took the books from her and they began to head back to his table.  
"Not a problem. If you need help with research or writing your paper, I'd be happy to help, I know a few things and my family fought on both sides. Things are quiet enough right now, since I'm not needed as much in props."  
Sam put his books down. "If you won't get in trouble, some family history would be interesting to look at."  
"I won't. My dad's side of the family fought for the Union and my mom's family was Confederate all the way. I could look and see if I can find the journals they kept."  
Sam agreed and they set up a time to meet tomorrow in the library.

Ruby grinned as she walked away. This was easier then she'd thought.

Dean heard the doors in the back open and watched Gabriel make his way up to the light booth. "You're late." Balthazar said softly as he walked past him in the seats.  
"I know. Sorry, was grading papers and lost track of time." Gabriel replied, stopping briefly to talk and then continue on his way.  
Dean watched from the corner of his eye as Gabriel unlocked the booth's door and shut it behind him. Dean finished placing a clamp and left Robert to take care of the set, while he went up to the light booth. Dean walked in, shutting the door behind him and leaned against it. Gabriel was over in the corner, up on the platform, messing with the music equipment; he didn't look up. The light cast a yellow hue onto the boards and the collection of music on the shelves. The black walls, the back of the door, and the black out curtain across the window facing the stage were the only things that absorbed the light.  
"Why are you ignoring me?" Dean whispered, watching Gabriel work.  
"Ignoring you? Didn't realize that you thought I was. I do have other things to do then hold your hand all day." Gabriel said, as he started to program in the musical cues for the show. There were a lot, and the sooner he got started, the better.

Dean pushed off the door, stalking over to Gabriel, climbing up to where Gabriel was. "Gabriel, look at me. What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling near him. Space was at a premium behind the sound board. In the entire room, actually, due to the strange angles in it and the equipment taking up a lot of the space. Dean braced one hand on the wall and the other on his knee.  
"There's nothing wrong, Dean. I just needed to remember that I'm your teacher, not your friend." Gabriel punched in the first cues for the lighting and thunder. He swallowed to keep his hands from shaking. "And that's Mr. Novak to you, not Gabriel." He continued to go slowly through the cues, waiting nothing more than for Dean to leave. If they started something, there was no going back, and Gabriel wouldn't risk it. He liked Dean too much to do that to him, and he liked his job too much to make it worth the risk.

"You flirted back too, Gabriel. Don't tell me you didn't like it, at least a little bit." Dean whispered, scooting a little closer.  
"So what if I did, Dean? It's still _wrong_! I'm your teacher. Not only would a relationship between us be highly inappropriate, but illegal as well. We can't do this." Gabriel growled softly.  
"Seventeen is the age of consent and I'll be eighteen in a few months." Dean shot back.  
"Dean, no. It's not just your age, it's my job as well. If we were discovered, I could lose my job." Gabriel explained.  
"I know." Dean sighed. "I still like you."  
"I like you too, but we can't do this. I'm sorry."  
"Me too." Dean began to get down, one leg dangling off the edge of the platform, before he turned around. "To hell with this. If I'm going to feel sorry about this, I'm going to have something to _be_ sorry about." he muttered to himself, pulling himself back up and to where Gabriel was.  
"Dean, what are you-" Gabriel asked before Dean's lips captured his. Dean's lips were soft and warm, and Gabriel gasped in surprise at the contact.

Dean nibbled on Gabriel's bottom lip, before pulling back and walking out without another word. He had grabbed his stuff and was out the door behind the stage before Gabriel could gather his wits enough to go after Dean.

"Ready, Sammy?" Dean asked, looking at the books strewn over the table.  
"Yeah, need to check these out." Sam picked up a stack of books, and Dean grabbed his bag.  
Dean glanced at the book on the top of the stack. "'Troop Movements and Formations of the Civil War'? For your paper right?"  
"Yeah. Interesting stuff."  
They finished checking out and headed for the parking lot.

Gabriel watched them from the shadows of a nearby building and sighed to himself as the Impala pulled away. He went back to the theater and grabbed his things, letting Balthazar know he was cutting out early.  
"That's all right. Must be something in the air. Dean begged off early as well." Balthazar mused as he watched Macbeth and the witches interact on stage.  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah, said he wasn't feeling well."  
"That's too bad."  
"That it is." Balthazar agreed. "Go home, feel better soon."  
"I will." Gabriel shrugged his jacket on and left the building.  
When he got home, Gabriel tossed his keys in the bowl on the table by the door and hung his jacket on the wall hook. He leaned against the wood door and slid to the floor. "God, what now?" he whispered to the empty hall.

Later in the week, Ruby grabbed Sam as he exited his science class. "I got one of the journals. Here, take care of it." She handed him a small, leather bound book, the edges worn and the color of the leather faded. "It's the one on my father's side of the family. I marked a few entries that might be of help." Ruby explained, waving a hand at the Post-It tags that dotted the book. "Still looking for the one on my mom's side. There's a few trunks in the attic I haven't gone through yet. I'll let you know when I find it."  
"Thank you, Ruby." Sam blushed slightly at her attention. It was nice having an older, pretty girl pay attention to him, even if it was just that she was helping him with a paper.

Ruby grinned at him, making sure to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and act slightly coy. "You're welcome, Sam. I'm sorry that I can't help anymore today."  
"That's all right, Ruby, you've done more than enough. But if you don't mind me asking, why are you doing this? Surely my topic can't be _that_ interesting to you." Sam said.  
"I- I don't know what you mean, Sam." Ruby backpedaled. "You're a sweet and rather cute guy, I like you."  
"Try again. There got to be another reason why a hot senior like you would even bother with a freshmen like me." Sam replied. And then it occurred to him. The reason why she would be doing this. "It's because of Dean, right? You thought he was hot and when he blew you off, you decided to go through me to get to him."  
Ruby stared at Sam. "How did you know?"  
"You aren't the first and you won't be the last girl to try that. You also won't be the last girl I tell this to."  
"Tell me what?" Ruby asked.  
"The reason why Dean's not interested in you, is that he's gay. Now I'll admit, having you around was fun and you are _incredibly_ hot, but it's just not gonna happen. Dean's as gay as the day is long. Sorry to disappoint you."  
"Seriously? He's gay?" Ruby questioned.  
"As a three dollar bill." Sam replied.  
Ruby sighed. "Dammit," she growled. "I really liked him." She pouted.  
"Most girls do but unless you can suddenly change your girlie bits to boy bits, Dean isn't gonna be interested. Not a bit. Sorry about that."  
"Yeah, me too." Ruby said. "Thanks anyway, Sam." She hitched her bag further up on her back and began to walk away. "I'll keep looking for the journal." She called over her shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the auditorium, Dean was neck deep in blood and swords. They had gotten the okay for the blood mix, the one that Gabriel had done, and were now seeing how it held up during fights and on clothing. Dean looked down at his clothes, noting the blood spray and hoped he wouldn't get any more on him. He kind of doubted it would happen, but one could dream. He was glad he had changed out of his uniform and into regular clothes, a bright idea he had thought up when he and Ruby began to first work on the blood bags. As it was, Dean didn't really need to do anything with the blood, Ruby was more than capable of handling it herself. Dean was just using it as an excuse to stay hidden and not deal with things.

And by things, he meant people.  
And by people, he meant Gabriel.

Dean sighed and shook his head. That kiss was probably the _stupidest_ thing that he had done to date. He didn't regret the kiss; hell, he had wanted to do it for a while now, full speed ahead and fuck the torpedoes, or however the saying went. If he had thought that Gabriel was ignoring him before, he totally was now. It was nothing but total and complete professionalism from Gabriel. It was like the kiss had never happened as far as he was concerned. It was driving Dean crazy. Dean put down the blood bag he was working on, capping it so it didn't leak and went to wash his hands. He needed to talk to Gabriel, now. Normally Dean had a class this period, Biology actually, but he had been allowed to come over to the theater when he had shown the note from Balthazar. He knew that Gabriel had a conference period right now and headed for his room.

Reaching the hall where Gabriel's room was, Dean walked down the hall quickly and after a glance through the glass pane, he stepped into Gabriel's classroom. The desks were facing what was the back of the room, with Gabriel's desk in the front of them and the chalkboard behind that. Dean could see last period's notes scrawled across it, but his attention was mainly focused on the man at the desk. Gabriel looked to be grading papers and Dean cleared his throat to get Gabriel's attention.  
"How can I help- Dean..." Gabriel trailed off after looking up. "What are you doing here?"  
"We need to talk. I figured that here would be the best place." Dean replied, standing in front of the desk.  
"Dean, there's nothing to talk about. Anything between us would be wrong, end of story." Gabriel leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face.  
"Don't you even want to try? And what about the kiss? You seemed to enjoy it."  
"I did." Gabriel admitted. "It was good. Even if you caught me by surprise."

Dean grinned at that and leaned against the desk, his hands resting on it. "I know. And I get where you're coming from, I really do, but I really like you. Can we at least try?"  
Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "I want to. God, help me, I _want_ to. But Dean-"  
"One month. Just give us one month. If it doesn't work, I'll walk away and leave you alone. One chance, Gabriel, that's all."  
"One month? That's all?"  
"That's all I swear." Dean said, coming around to Gabriel's side and perching on the desk."Please say yes." he whispered, brushing the back of Gabriel's hand with his.

Gabriel continued to stare at Dean, a small part of himself shocked that he was even _considering_ what Dean was saying.  
"Gabriel..."  
"Yes." Gabriel whispered.  
Dean grinned, surging forward and kissing Gabriel, slipping onto his lap.  
"Dean!" Gabriel yelped, his hands going to Dean's waist to steady him. Dean scooted closer and wrapped his arms around Gabriel's neck.   
"We need to set some ground rules." Gabriel growled, one hand tangling into Dean's hair.  
"In a bit." Dean replied, kissing Gabriel enthusiastically.  
"In just a minute." Gabriel agreed, kissing back just as fiercely.

Ruby walked down the hall towards Gabriel's classroom. She had started out in the theater, looking in the prop room and light booth. One of the other students saw her looking around and after she told them she was looking for Dean, had told her that Dean had left about ten or so minutes ago. That he had been headed over to Mr. Novak class. Ruby reached the door, her hand on the knob, as she looked through the window.

Oh holy crap...Holy fucking hell! Was she _actually_ seeing this? Ruby stared at what was in front of her.

It was Dean and Mr. Novak. And they were kissing. Dean was in Mr. Novak's lap and they were _seriously_ making out. Her hand slid off the door knob as Gabriel pulled back and moved Dean back to his desk before sitting back in his chair. They appeared to be talking, she couldn't hear what was being said, but she did see that their fingers were still entwined as they talked. This. Was. Priceless. An illicit affair between a student and teacher? Ruby wondered how she could use this to her advantage. She quietly moved to an alcove around the corner to think.

"We can't do this here, someone could see." Gabriel said, leaning back in his chair, trying to get his heart to slow back to a normal pace. His thumb idly brushed back and forth against the skin between Dean's thumb and index finger.  
"It's too dangerous. We need somewhere safer."  
"The backseat of the Impala's out. Car's too noticeable."  
"I'm a bit old for making out in the backseat of cars, Dean, but the thought's appreciated." Gabriel snickered.   
"It's still fun, though." Dean replied.  
"That's true." Gabriel conceded, before opening a draw in his desk. "Licorice, strawberry flavored." He offered the bag to Dean. "It'll help us brainstorm."  
Dean laughed, calling Gabriel a liar.  
"My hand to God, it's the honest truth." Gabriel protested, offering the bag again.  
"Sure it is." Dean smirked, taking a piece and biting into it.

After a bit, Ruby heard the door open and close, and the sound of Dean and Gabriel fading as they walked away. She peeked around the corner and watched. It was all too perfect; she knew what she was going to do.


	2. Chapter Two

Ruby watched them both for a few days. For the most part, they acted like normal, but every once in a while she'd catch them watching each other out of the corners of their eyes. Whenever they caught the other's eye, they'd break contact and their eyes would skitter away. Dean came in one day to the prop room, skin flushed, eyes slightly glassy and with a small hickey on his neck, partially hidden by his flannel shirt's collar. Ruby smirked at this.  
"Looks like someone's been having some fun." she teased, pausing briefly in her inspection of the weapons they were going to use for the play.  
Dean blushed and looked a tad embarrassed. "Maybe I was."  
"And I bet I know with who." Ruby continued, sliding a sword back into its hilt and picking up another.

"What makes you say that?" Dean asked, picking up an empty blood bag and filling it with blood from a squeezable bottle.  
"The fact that I know that you and Mr. Novak are together." Ruby replied, inspecting the edge of an axe.  
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Dean said, as he continued to fill blood bags, capping the pouches when he was done filling them. He wiped a stray bit of blood off the outside of a bag.  
"The _hell_ you don't Dean. Three days ago, you were sitting in Novak's lap, sucking his tonsils out through his mouth." Ruby retorted, picking up another weapon.  
Dean went still, his hands slowly filling the bag in his hands. "No."  
"Yes. You were in his lap, wearing your blue flannel and shirt and a pair of black jeans, and the two of you were playing a rather serious game of tonsil hockey."

Dean's heart stopped. Ruby was dead on. _Crap._ A dull flush of red crept up the back of his neck as his hands shook slightly. Dean swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. "What do you want?" he asked, capping and putting the bag down.  
Ruby smiled darkly as Dean turned to face her. "Not much, but we'll start with you being my boyfriend."  
"Seriously? That's all?" Dean asked.  
"That's the start." Ruby replied. She put down the weapon she was working on and walked out of the room.

"Mr. Novak, can I talk to you?" Ruby asked, coming into his classroom.  
"Of course, Ruby. What can I do for you?"  
"How nice of you to ask." Ruby replied. "We'll start with how much you can pay me. $200 dollars a week and free rein to go wherever I want in the school whenever I want."  
Gabriel grinned, he had to give credit to Ruby for going after what she wanted. "And why would I do that?" he asked. "And is that all, really?"  
"It's a start." Ruby said, feeling a case of deja vu. "As to why," Ruby leaned over Gabriel's desk. "I know about you and Dean."

Gabriel just gave her a look, who did this child think she was trying to blackmail him? And with a rather paltry attempt at that. "Dean is just a student, Ruby. The same as you or any other."  
"I highly doubt that. For one thing I'm sure that you don't make out with any of your other students. For another, I know the school district superintendent, _very_ well I might add. I'm sure my father would _love_ to know that one of his employees was having an improper affair with a student, as would the school board." Ruby ticked the points off on her fingers. "You'd not only be fired immediately, but lose your license and be black listed from teaching ever again."  
"Oh really? Where's your proof?" Gabriel asked, he still found it hard to believe that Ruby had any or that she knew what she was talking about.  
"The two of you were in here, making out, you pushed him onto your desk." She had been there. It was the only way she could have known. He _knew_ that being with Dean was a bad idea.  
"Do we have an agreement?" Ruby asked.

The following weeks seemed like a never ending nightmare to Dean. Ruby had been unrelenting in her demands on both of them. Dean had tried to warn Gabriel, but had been too late.  
"We shouldn't be doing this." Gabriel said, taking a sip of his soda. They were sitting in the front seat of the Impala, a bag of take out between them.  
"I know, but where else are we going to be able to talk in private?" Dean asked, eating a french fry.  
Gabriel sighed. "I hate sneaking around. Well, more then usual."  
Dean nodded as they ate. "How's Ruby with you? Not to spoil the mood, but I'm curious."  
"She's a spoiled, demanding brat." Gabriel spat out. "She's had me writing notes excusing her out of half her classes, under the pretense of her needing to do something for me or for the theater. God, knows what she's actually doing, I know she's grabbed a couple of friends out of class with said notes."  
"What about the money?"  
Gabriel winced. "Don't ask. She's been a bit of a leech on that."  
"She's making me take her to prom." Dean mumbled.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. Fucking _prom!_ And get this, she wants me to take her in the Impala!" Dean growled in outrage. "That bitch wants me to take her to a stupid dance in my baby!"  
Gabriel squeezed Dean's hand in sympathy. "Would it help to know I'll be that stupid dance? I got roped into chaperoning a few months ago."  
"Sucks for you." Dean commented.  
"Yeah, it does." Gabriel agreed.  
They finished eating in silence.

As the days rolled closer to prom, the stresses of dealing with Ruby and of being apart more or less, were beginning to get to both Dean and Gabriel. Their original deal was off; it was just safer that way for the both of them. The breakup had not been fun. Dean was being dragged around by Ruby in public, acting like her boyfriend, being kissed by her. The kissing was what he really hated the most. It wasn't because he was kissing a girl, it was because he was kissing a girl he hated and she was a bad kisser to boot.

Gabriel knocked on the door and waited to be admitted.  
"Come in." a voice called.  
Gabriel opened the door, stepping into the room and smiled. "Hello, Kali."  
"Mr. Novak. To what do I owe this visit?" Kali put down the pen she was grading papers with at her desk.  
"We've been through this before. Call me Gabriel."  
"Alright Gabriel. You still haven't answered me question."  
Gabriel grinned. "True, I haven't." He pulled on the cuff of his shirt. "Nothing up this sleeve." He pulled on the other. "Nothing up this one, either." Gabriel clapped his hands twice and seemed to pull a rose out of thin air.  
"For you." he said, handing Kali the rose. "I wanted to invite you out to dinner this weekend, are you doing anything?"

Kali smiled, sniffing the rose. She had to give him points for being original. This was a very unique way of asking a woman out. She had met Gabriel when she had first started teaching at the school. He had helped her move a few things into her room. They had gotten to talking and had spent some of the conversation talking in Latin of all things. She really did enjoy it and nodded in agreement. "I'd love to go out with you, what did you have in mind?"

Dean had to watch Gabriel be with someone else. It wasn't something he liked, watching that hurt more than anything that Ruby could do. Kali Koothrappali was one of two teachers who taught Latin. She could speak it flawlessly, and Dean knew Gabriel could speak a bit of Latin himself. Dean didn't blame Gabriel for seeing someone new, but it still hurt seeing him with someone else. The way he found out hadn't been pleasant, either.

He saw the two of them in her classroom talking when Kali leaned close and kissed Gabriel on the cheek. When Gabriel pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her waist, and kissed her mouth, Dean turned on his heel and walked away.

Gabriel had heard Kali's door creak and looked up as he kissed Kali. It was Dean at the door and the look on his face was a cross of anger and pain. Gabriel closed his eyes and went back to kissing Kali, ignoring when Dean walked away, his mind on Kali, before pulling away and nibbling on her bottom lip.  
"That was nice." Kali whispered throatily. Gabriel nodded and kissed her again, even as his heart sank just a bit.

Dean went back to the theater and told Balthazar that Gabriel couldn't come and took over on the light board, teaching another student the musical cues. The following day Dean managed to get Gabriel alone.  
"Why are you seeing her?" he asked softly.  
"Because things weren't working between us. It's just better if we both move on and forget about each other." Gabriel replied.  
"But we never got a chance."  
"We never had one to begin with Dean. It was foolish of us to try."  
"No it wasn't." Dean hissed back.  
"Yes, it was. You're only seventeen. No good could or would have come of this relationship."  
"I'll be eighteen after prom. We can try again."  
"No, Dean. Even if you're eighteen, you'll still be my student."  
"After graduation, then. Please, Gabriel."  
"No. It's better this way, believe me, you'll thank me in the long run."  
Dean highly doubted that as he felt his heart break in two.

"Tomorrow's Fair Day. We're going to the fair." Ruby told Dean. "Be there at 2 o'clock, the front gate."  
Dean rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Doing so would serve no purpose.  
They met at the gate, and went in, getting in for half price when showing their school identification. Every year a carnival was in town for a week, and the Friday of the fair was known as Fair Day. 

The town would throw a huge parade, and the school would let its students have the day off, since most of them would have skipped to go to the fair, anyway. Dean and Ruby walked around for a bit, ridden a couple of rides (Dean took pleasure in beating her at bumper cars) and Dean had "won" Ruby a stuffed animal at the ring toss booth. They were on their way to the food court area. Dean was going to kill someone if he didn't get a funnel cake soon; that was the only thing that was making this "date" worth it. Then Dean saw Gabriel and Kali. They were holding hands and laughing to themselves, talking about something.

Ruby didn't want to wait in line for a funnel cake. She thought they were gross, and couldn't see why Dean would want one. So while he waited she went to the bathroom and as soon as she was gone, Dean ducked out of line and followed Gabriel and Kali. He had seen them walk past some of the rides and games and had disappeared behind a booth up ahead of him. He slowed down and strained his ears to pick up any and all sound. A stray giggle flitted across Dean's ears and he quietly snuck around the side of an empty booth and looked around the flap of canvas hanging in the air. Gabriel and Kali were leaning against the back of the booth, making out. Neither of them noticed that Dean was ther;, they were so engrossed in each other. Dean watched for a minute before leaving. Gabriel pulled away from Kali, seeing something move out of the corner of his eye.  
"What's wrong?" Kali asked.  
"Thought I saw something." Gabriel said, looking around.  
"I don't see anything." Kali replied, doing the same. "But you are right, this _is_ a bit too public." She grabbed his hand and pulled Gabriel away from the wall and away from the booths. 

They were walking amongst the rides and attractions when Kali saw what she wanted. The Hall of Mirrors was closed due to some of the panes needing to be replaced. She walked up the stairs, bringing Gabriel with her, and opened the door, walking inside.  
"This will do nicely." She smiled.  
"It is more private." Gabriel agreed, following behind Kali as they walked through the maze, stopping every once in a while to neck before they reached the Room of Mirrors. The panel that allowed people to leave had been broken and was the only blank spot in the room, the door of it slightly ajar.  
"So where were we?" Kali asked, turning to Gabriel and kissing along his neck. Gabriel laughed when her hair brushed against his earlobe.  
"About right here." Gabriel tilted Kali's head up to kiss her, pulling her flush against him.  
Kali sighed in appreciation, wrapping her arms around Gabriel's neck.

Dean sighed in frustration, mentally kicking himself in the ass. Why did he follow them? It's not like he really _needed_ to see what they were up to. Besides, all it was, was making out behind a booth, nothing to get riled up about. It still drove Dean crazy to see Gabriel with Kali; he didn't care what Gabriel said. He kicked the dirt in anger and growled to himself before remembering about Ruby. She was probably wondering where he had run off to, Dean really didn't give a damn either way, but appearances and all. Sighing to himself, Dean stopped for his funnel cake, now unwanted and began to look for Ruby, idly picking at the sugary fried treat.  
"There you are!" Ruby exclaimed, every inch of the "concerned girlfriend". "I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to send out a search party."

She sidled up to Dean's side, wrinkling her nose at the funnel cake. "Don't see how you can eat those." she said.  
"Then I guess I don't have to share with you." Dean retorted, eating a bit that he had torn off, before he licked the powdered sugar off his fingers.  
"Knock yourself out. Ready to go or do you want to hang around for a bit longer?"  
"Let's go." Dean started for the exit gate, anything to be done with this date from hell.

On the way out, he thought he caught a glimpse of Gabriel and Kali again, but wasn't totally sure, they were headed in a different direction towards another gate. They both looked a bit rumpled, flushed and still damn happy. Dean had a good idea what they had been up to and it wasn't just making out in semi-privacy. When Gabriel put his arm around Kali's waist to guide her through the crowd and pull her closer to him, whispering in her ear, Dean had to stop watching.  
"Aw, poor baby." Ruby sympathized, seeing what Dean was. "Hurts when they move on without you, doesn't it?" Her tone was anything _but_ sympathetic. Only Ruby could be such a _bitch_ and make it sound so innocent.  
Dean tossed the rest of the funnel cake away, his appetite totally gone. "Shut up."

Today was the day, or rather, today was the night. Prom. Dean was not looking forward to it. He straightened the bow tie of his tux and stuck his tongue out at his reflection. "Look ridiculous." he muttered, grabbing his keys from his dresser.  
"Have a good time. Tell Ruby I said hi." John called from the living room as Dean walked by. "Don't forget the corsage!" he yelled, as Dean opened the front door. John had no idea that Dean liked men or that Ruby was blackmailing him. When Dean introduced Ruby to him, John thought she was Dean's new girl. Sam wasn't around to say differently, so John was none the wiser.  
Dean slammed the door shut and stalked back to the fridge and got the box with Ruby's flowers in it. Bitch had insisted on a rose corsage too. The corsage was a cluster of red baby roses with baby's breath surrounding it.  
"Thanks." he replied to John and left the house.

Dean pulled up to Ruby's house, staring at it. He could see now what Gabriel had meant by her being spoiled; the place was a freaking palace, practically. He sighed, straightened his tie again and got out of the Impala. 

"Be over soon baby." he said, patting the hood as he went to the front door and knocked. Dean wasn't sure if it was more for him at this point or the cat itself. After a few minutes, the door was opened and the sounds of a party spilled out into the neighborhood.  
"Dean! Good of you to be here!" Ruby exclaimed. happily. "Hey guys! Dean's here, we can go to the dance now!" she shouted over her shoulder, into the house.

Dean could see her eyes, they were bloodshot and he could smell smoke on her. Ruby was high. "Little party before the party, huh?" he asked. "Your parents know about that?"  
Ruby snorted. "My parents aren't here. My father's practically married to his job, and my mother's long gone. Ran off with the cabana boy, Daddy didn't even know until the divorce papers showed up at work."  
All of Ruby's friends came out and Ruby locked the front door. "And we're off." She giggled, and they set off for the school.

They walked up to the gym and entered through an archway covered in flowers. This year the theme was A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the gym had been transformed into an other worldly dreamland. It was actually very lovely, but Dean still didn't want to be there.  
"Let's dance." Ruby commanded, pulling him onto the dance floor. "Tonight's gonna be great, Dean. Really it is." Ruby grinned.  
"What makes you say that?"  
"Because I'm going to win Prom Queen." Ruby boasted.  
"Really now? Prom Queen?"  
"Oh yes. Ruby McConnell, Prom Queen."  
"Brilliant." Dean muttered.

The night wore on, and Dean was hating it all and counting the minutes until he could take Ruby home. It didn't help that she and a few of her friends had started drinking, thanks to the flask one of them had snuck in.  
"Enjoying yourself?" came a voice from his side as Dean drank his punch.  
"Not really. Just waiting for this night to be over." Dean replied, pointedly not looking at Gabriel. The less he saw him, the better.  
"Tell me about it. Can't believe I got yanked into this."  
They made meaningless small talk before their dates found and claimed them. Gabriel had come with Kali. She was chaperoning as well.  
"Hello Dean, Ruby. How are you enjoying the dance?" Kali asked.  
Dean's nod was non-committal, and Ruby grinned.  
"Very much Ms. Koothrappali. You?"  
"It's not bad." Kali smiled. "Shall we dance?" she asked Gabriel, and they moved onto the dance floor.

Dean couldn't help but watch them as they slow danced, totally tuning Ruby and her chatter out. The red of Kali's dress made her stand out in the sea of formal wear, the straps of her dress resting lightly on her shoulders. She was the same height as Gabriel, but the shoes she wore made her a couple inches taller. They moved through the crowd and Dean heard her laugh at something Gabriel said. Watching him smile in response made something in Dean twist sickly.

"Dean's watching us. He's been doing that on and off all night, you think he's planning something?" Kali asked.  
Dean's eyes darted away as Gabriel glanced over. "I doubt it, Dean's a nice kid."  
"Really? How do you know?"  
"From the play and class. He's crazy smart, is good with his hands and can follow direction well. Takes good care of his brother too."  
"That would be Sam." Kali said as Gabriel spun her away from him before tugging her back.  
"Yeah. How do you know?"  
"Sam's in my class. When I saw Dean start going out with Ruby, I voiced a few concerns. There just something about her that rubs me the wrong way. You know he's gay right?"

Gabriel froze, hands tightening on Kali's body before he relaxed and let one hand squeeze her hip. There was _no way_ that Kali could know about him and Dean. None at all. "Who? Dean?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could.  
"Yes, Dean."  
"How did you know?"  
"Sam again. He says that Ruby used him to get to Dean and it was shortly after that, that they started dating. You know anything about that?"  
Gabriel shook his head. "Dean and Ruby, no." he lied. "Dean being gay, yes. He told me one day in the light booth."  
"It's a shame he feels like he has to hide." Kali whispered.  
"Yeah, it is." Gabriel agreed, as they moved across the floor.

Kali watched Dean and Ruby dancing as his eyes drifted back over and settled on them again. Or not on them, but on _Gabriel_ and the look on Dean's face spoke _volumes_ and made Gabriel's reaction suddenly come into screamingly clear view. Were the two of them... No, it wasn't possible, Gabriel wouldn't toss his career and job away over a student crush. Even if it was true, Kali wasn't so crass, as to blab about it.

Dean had asked Balthazar about Kali, mainly because he had been curious about the woman. She had come across as a force to be reckoned with, to both students and teachers. Dean wanted to hate her, he really did, but he couldn't. Dean sighed and looked away. He couldn't watch them anymore. Watching Gabriel be happy with someone else made Dean ache.  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for is finally here." The evening's Master of Ceremonies announced. "It's time to announce this evenings Prom King and Queen. May I have the results please?" The results were handed up to him and the envelope was opened. He read the results and grinned before addressing the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the runner's up are John LaBelle and Sydney Gir for Crown Prince and Crown Princess. And Heather Green and Joshua Kingsly for Prom Queen and King!"

The gym burst into thunderous applause as the two couples came up to accept their crowns and scepters. Ruby's mouth dropped open. It wasn't possible. This wasn't happening! _She_ was supposed to be queen, not Heather! Ruby saw red and would have launched herself at Heather, if Dean hadn't tightened his grip on her.  
"It's not worth it, let it go." he whispered in her ear.  
"I was supposed to be queen! Not that cow!" Ruby growled as Dean steered her out of the crowd.  
"It's just a stupid title, Ruby, it doesn't actually mean anything." Dean replied as they cleared the last group of people and were closer to the door.  
"I don't care! I wanted it, I should have it." Ruby sulked.  
"Never mind if Heather wanted it too." said Dean as Ruby pulled her arm free of his grip.  
"She wouldn't like it as much as I would." Ruby grumbled. "I want out of here. Let's go Dean." Ruby began to stalk towards the door.  
"Fine by me. I'll take you home." Dean replied as they walked back to the Impala.

"Give me the keys, I'm driving." Ruby demanded as they reached the Impala.  
"No way. I'm driving, period. Where do you want to go? I'll take you."  
"Why not? I'm good to drive." Ruby shot back.  
"Because you're high and damn tipsy. Because I'm the only one who drives my car. Because it's bad enough that you're _in_ my car. Like hell am I going to let you drive her." Dean growled. "Now get in the car, I'm taking you home." Dean opened the car door for her and shut said door when she did. Getting behind the wheel, Dean pulled out of the parking lot.

Soon they were back in front of Ruby's place. Dean turned off the car and got out, coming around to get her door for her. "Come on, I'll walk you to the door." He may not have liked Ruby, but his father did raise him to be a gentleman. Dean took Ruby to the door and made sure she got in alright.  
"So glad that's over. Let's go home baby." Dean said patting the dashboard and driving away.

Gabriel walked up to his front door, keys in hand, and let himself in. He had dropped Kali off at her place, and when she offered to let him spend the night, he was so tempted to say yes. It didn't help that the kiss goodnight from her reminded him that it had been awhile since they had spent any time together in bed. His heart not in it, Gabriel regretfully told her no, and after another kiss, went home on his own. Dropping the keys in the bowl, Gabriel shrugged off, the black suit jacket and hung it on the wall. He dropped his wallet by the keys and yawning slightly, headed for the kitchen; it was time for a drink. Gabriel soon had a screwdriver in his hands and was relaxing on the sofa, shoes off, feet up when the doorbell rang awhile later. Gabriel wondered who it could be. He got up, swaying slightly from the vodka, making a note that apple flavored vodka was yummy, and went to the door.

Dean stood on Gabriel's porch wondering what he was doing. The last time he had been here was when they were still together and needed somewhere private to talk. Dean was about to knock again when the door opened. Gabriel stood there, still in his clothes from the dance, a pair of black slacks and an olive green dress shirt. Dean's breath caught in his throat, he forgot just how handsome Gabriel could be.  
"Dean, what are you doing here?" Gabriel asked.  
"The lights were on, wanted to see you and say hi."  
"You shouldn't be here." Gabriel said, leaning against the door, it made the floor even out.  
"I know. I just... I just needed to see you. I miss you."  
"Dean..." Gabriel whispered.  
"I know. I'll shut up and leave now." Dean turned around and began to walk down the porch steps.  
"Dean, wait." Gabriel grabbed Dean's arm and spun him around quickly, pulling him close. Dean stumbled into Gabriel's arms and placed his hands on Gabriel's hips.  
"I miss you too." Gabriel replied, before yanking Dean inside the house and slamming the door shut, shoving Dean up against it.  
"Gabriel, what-" Dean exclaimed, the rest of his sentence muffled by Gabriel's mouth on his.

Holy crap! _Yesyesyeswantneednow!_ Dean's brain screamed as it caught up with what Gabriel was doing. Gabriel's hands were tangled in Dean's suit jacket and he yanked Dean off the door and they staggered into the living room and onto the sofa. Dean landed on it first, his back hitting the cushions, with Gabriel on top.  
"Orange juice and apples?" Dean asked.  
"Apple flavored vodka." Gabriel explained, nipping Dean's mouth.  
"Screwdrivers taste good on you." Dean growled, licking at Gabriel's mouth, his hips rocking up against Gabriel's.

Gabriel groaned at the pressure, rutting against Dean in return. Dean ripped Gabriel's shirt open in surprise, the buttons flying everywhere, some hitting the floor, some lodging themselves in the sofa. Gabriel stopped what he was doing and sat up, looking down at what was once a nice silk shirt. It was torn down the center with only a couple of buttons still attached to the fabric. The shirt slid off Gabriel's shoulders and he tore the shirt off the rest of the way, shrugging it off and tossing it away. "Someone's eager." He smirked.  
"Shut up and come here." Dean growled, pulling Gabriel down and kissing him hungrily.

It was while they were rutting and kissing like horny teenagers, Gabriel swore he heard his sofa _move_ at one point, that Gabriel's rational mind finally kicked in.

_What are you doing? He's seventeen, he's not even legal Gabriel! And to top things off, you've had too much to drink, your decision making skills can't be trusted right now. Stop this now!_

"Dean, wait. We need to stop." Gabriel reluctantly pulled away and stopped Dean's hands from rubbing up and down his back. Dean growled with need and bit Gabriel's collarbone.  
"I'm serious. Stop. It." Gabriel said, using his best Teacher Voice and glaring at Dean.  
Dean honestly found Gabriel's Teacher Voice to be damn sexy and it went straight to his groin. The Glare of Death was enough to make Dean realize that Gabriel was serious.

They sat up and next to each other collecting themselves. Gabriel could see several hickies on Dean's chest, at least one bite mark, and a rather brutal hickey on his collarbone. It looked like an octopus had tried to make Dean its love monkey. Gabriel wasn't doing any better as far as Dean could see either. As Gabriel pulled on his ruined dress shirt, Dean could see the hickies, bite marks and no doubt there were a few scratch marks on his back.  
"You need to leave now and this can not happen again." Gabriel stood up and Dean followed, walking towards the door.  
"So what was all of this?" Dean asked, making sure his jacket was straight.  
"I don't know, but it won't be happening again." Gabriel replied, his hand on the door.  
"But Gabriel-"  
"Dean, go home. I'm sorry." Gabriel cut him off before kissing him gently. "Good night Dean. Have a safe trip home." Gabriel opened the door, making sure to keep behind it.  
Dean stared at him for a moment before walking out the door. "Good night Gabriel, pleasant dreams."  
Gabriel shut the door behind him and Dean drove away.

Meanwhile back at Ruby's house, things were not going so well. Ruby was in a rather foul mood over not being crowned Prom Queen, and needed something to help her calm down and relax. Nothing was going as she had planned. Sure, she was popular at school, but she had no real friends, those people she hung out with were nothing but a bunch of sycophants, really. She had money; it was her father's, but that still counted, right? She had no real boyfriend who loved her. All the guys she dated either did it because they thought they could get her in bed (a few had) or because of her money.

Ruby sipped from the glass of wine she decided to have while waiting for her bath to fill. It's not like her father would notice a bottle missing from the wine cellar to begin with. The tub was half full when Ruby slipped off her robe, lit a couple candles on the vanity counter top and got in after flipping the light off. The shadows flickering on the walls were nice to watch as she reclined in the bubble bath sipping her wine. Being Prom Queen had been part of the plan, it depressed Ruby to see it not come to fruition. Ruby switched off the running water with her foot and set the nearly empty glass on the floor next to the tub. She leaned back again and soon fell asleep in the steamy room.

"Dean, you're late." John said, looking up from his book. It wasn't that he had been worried for his oldest, not at all. The book was just really good, that's all.  
"I know. Sorry, sir." Dean replied as he walked in. Dean hoped that his shirt was straight. He had tried his best in the Impala to make sure.  
"It's Senior Prom, you only have one, I'll let it slide for tonight." John said.  
"Thank you." Dean responded.  
"You're welcome. Have fun?"  
"It was alright. I'm gonna go to bed." Dean yawned.  
"Alright then. Good night Dean."  
"Night Dad." Dean went to his room, shutting the door behind him.

Dean pulled off the jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. Gabriel had been far more patient then he had. He reached for the tie when he realized that it wasn't there. Dean let the shirt fall to the ground and checked his pockets. Keys, wallet, but no tie. Instead his fingers encountered something else in his right front pants pocket. Pulling it out, Dean saw what it was, a small green button. It matched the ones on Gabriel's shirt and Dean knew it hadn't been there beforehand. It must have fallen into his pocket earlier, though Dean had no idea how. He turned it over in his fingers, looking at the back before placing it on the nightstand next to his bed.

Gabriel locked the door behind Dean and turned off the porch light. He went back to the living room and sat on the sofa. What the hell was wrong with him? He had a great job, students that he enjoyed and a frankly fabulous girlfriend that he cared about. So why was he throwing that all away for some seventeen year old? Gabriel didn't know and drained the rest of his, now becoming warm, screwdriver before getting up to clean up the mess he and Dean had made. Shrugging off the shirt again, Gabriel began to gather the buttons from the sofa and floor. It wasn't like Kali didn't very happily meet all his needs and desires, she did, but Gabriel honestly couldn't see why he thought dragging Dean in here so wild and recklessly had been a good idea.

He dropped some buttons and the shirt onto the coffee table and reached under the sofa to find any others. His questing fingers didn't find buttons, but instead a bit of fabric. Gabriel pulled it out and stared at the bit of black silk for a moment. When it registered that the fabric was a tie, Gabriel realized that it was Dean's tie. He had to untie it to be able to unbutton Dean's shirt. Somehow it had ended up under the sofa. Gabriel stroked it with a fingertip before getting up to complete his cleaning. When he went to bed a bit later, the tie was tucked into a glass top box he kept next to the bed.

The following Monday, the halls were buzzing with what had happened at prom and the various after parties that had gone on far into the night. The other bit of gossip that was floating around was that Ruby was dead. Dean couldn't believe his ears. Apparently she had fallen asleep and drowned in her bubble bath. _Ruby had drowned in her fucking bath._ Her father had found her on Sunday afternoon, when he had come home from work. The entire student body was talking up a storm. There was a small memorial set up at her locker; someone commented that they had seen her father emptying her locker that morning. Dean hoped that he wouldn't be expected to play the part of the grieving boyfriend.  
"Attention students, please report to the gym for an emergency assembly. Homeroom and first period have been cancelled for today." crackled over the loud speaker. Dean sighed and shouldering his bag, walked to the gym.

The gym was filling up fast. Dean grabbed a spot where he could. Sam saw him and trotted over.  
"Aren't you supposed to be sitting with the freshmen?"  
"Hi to you too, Dean." Sam sat next to him. "Any idea what's going on? Did you hear about Ruby?"  
Dean nodded. "Yeah."

The principal stepped up to the podium that had been set up on a stage in the middle of the gym. She tapped the mic once and called for everyone's attention. She made the official announcement about Ruby's death and turned the mic over to the superintendent. He was an older gentleman, dressed in a suit with close cropped gray hair.  
"My daughter was a close friend to several of you and a beloved member of this school. I deeply regret having to tell you of her death. The other reason we're having this assembly is because my Ruby was found with traces of THC, alcohol and a couple other drugs in her bloodstream. I know my little girl would have never done this on her own, and think she was drugged. I urge any of you with a clue about this, to please come forward. You aren't in trouble. I just want to know who did this to my daughter."  
Dean's blood rushed in his ears and he tuned out the rest of the assembly. This could not end well.

"Megan Masters, Principal Harris." the secretary called over the office intercom.  
"Send her in please." Ms. Harris replied, pushing the intercom's button.  
A blond teen came in and sat down. "Hi Principal Harris, Zachariah, sorry, Mr. McConnell. You wanted to talk to me?" she asked.  
"Hello Megan. Yes, I have a few questions for you. Could you tell me about what happened on Friday night? I know it was prom. I know Ruby had a date. Who was it?"  
"His name is Dean. We were getting ready and her picked Ruby up that night." Meg replied.  
"How long have they been seeing each other?" Zachariah asked.  
"A while, couple months I think." Meg's fingers twisted the hem of her skirt.  
"He's a new student this semester. His brother's a freshman and his father's a military man." Principal Harris volunteered.  
"Thank you. What happened after he picked up Ruby?"  
"We went to the dance."

It was the same story with all of Ruby's friends. They had gotten ready at her house, Dean had picked her up and everyone went to the dance. It also came to light that Ruby had been acting a little strange at the dance. Everyone thought that Dean had something to do with it. Principal Harris thought that it was a bit convenient, but couldn't really say so in front of Zachariah. Zachariah's reaction was one that the teens had hoped for, that once he had heard more than once about Dean, he'd be like a dog with a bone. None of the other students wanted to admit to getting high or drinking at the dance, so scapegoating someone else was the next best thing.

At the end of the day, Dean stopped by Gabriel's classroom.  
"She's seriously gone." Gabriel said, pulling the door shut.  
"Yeah, not the best way to go." Dean replied as he pulled off his bag and set it by the door.  
"No, it isn't."  
"I saw that some of her friends were being pulled into the principal's office." Dean continued, sitting down at a desk. "They're going to want to talk to me." Dean rubbed a hand over his face. "After her friends."  
"I'll vouch for you; I can back you up on Ruby's drinking at the dance." Gabriel squeezed Dean's hand.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, found one of them with a flask of rum. I took it away and got rid of it."

There was a knock on the door and Zachariah came into the room. "Dean Winchester?" he asked. Dean nodded.  
"Superintendent McConnell. Hello. Please come in." Gabriel said, semi-snarkily. He'd never really liked the guy, and coming into his room unwelcome was just rude.  
Zachariah ignored Gabriel and zeroed in on Dean. "I've been talking to my daughter's friends. They say that you took her to the dance, is that true?"  
Dean nodded again. "Yes, sir."  
"They also say that she was acting strange at the dance. I think you had something to do with it. I think you're the one who got my little girl the alcohol and drugs that killed her."  
" _What?_ No, I didn't! Ruby was already high when I got there. She got the alcohol at the prom, one of her friends brought it with them."  
"I highly doubt that! My daughter would never do anything like that." Zachariah snorted.

"Oh yes, she would." Gabriel spoke up. "I was at the dance, she had been drinking from a flask of rum a friend of hers brought with them. I'm sorry, Zach, but she did it to herself. Your little girl wasn't the angel you think she was. She was a manipulative little bitch who liked to hurt people and make them dance to her tune." Gabriel shut his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that last bit; even if it was true, sometimes parents didn't need to hear it. But it did make him feel better.  
"How _dare_ you say such lies about my daughter!" Zachariah hissed, his energy now focused on Gabriel.  
"It's not a lie when it's the truth." Gabriel replied. "Now get out of my classroom."  
Zachariah glared at Gabriel. "I know you're both lying. I'll see you in court." He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Dean shuddered. "Oh my God."  
"Calm down, Dean. It's alright."  
"No, it isn't! Did you hear him?"  
"Yeah, and I can guarantee you that Zach's a total tool and all talk."  
"But what if-" Dean started.  
Gabriel held up a hand. "Dean, I gave the flask back to Demeter's parents on Saturday and told them what happened at the dance. I'll see about getting it to the cops and do what I can to take care of this. Don't worry, it'll be fine, I promise."  
"You sure?"  
"Yes. But just in case, we should look into a lawyer."  
"My dad's gonna _love_ this." Dean grumbled, head in his hands.  
"I'll help you talk to him. Come on, let's go."  
"What about us?" Dean asked softly.  
"Now isn't the time, maybe after you've graduated. We should talk to your dad this afternoon. Is he at home?"  
"Should be. I think he just had a morning shift today." Dean picked up his things while Gabriel grabbed his. "Gonna need a ride, though. He has the car today."  
"That's fine. Let's grab Sam and tell Balthazar what we're doing on the way out." Gabriel opened the door and they stepped into the hall, with Gabriel locking the door behind them.  
"Damn. That means I'm responsible for all the props doesn't it?"  
"Afraid so." Gabriel replied as they set off for the theater, Sam had opted to watch today, instead of hanging out in the library.  
Dean grabbed Sam while Gabriel quickly whispered to Balthazar what had happened and what was going to happen.  
"Oh dear, that's not good at all." Balthazar whispered back, watching the actors on stage.  
"Nope."  
"Call Michael. Maybe he could recommend someone." Balthazar suggested.  
"Maybe. Thanks." Gabriel grinned and walked towards Dean and Sam. "We ready?"  
"Yep." Sam said, shouldering his bag.  
"Let's go."

Gabriel pulled up to the house and cut off the engine. They walked up to the house and Sam let them in, as he called for John. Dean and Gabriel had filled him in on what happened on the way home. Sam and Dean put their coats on the wall and took Gabriel's before tucking their packs away in a nearby cubby.  
"Want anything to drink?" Dean asked.  
"Water would be good." Gabriel replied.  
"Boys, what's wrong?" John had come from upstairs.  
"Dad, this is Mr. Novak." Sam said as they all trooped into the kitchen.  
"Gabriel." Gabriel said, shaking John's hand.  
"John." John replied. "What's going on?"  
They sat at the kitchen table, drinks in hand.  
Dean and Gabriel looked at each other, before telling John what has happened over the weekend and that afternoon at school. Gabriel left out everything that concerned his and Dean's relationship.  
"Seriously? He thinks you had something to do with his daughter's death? Wonderful." John drained the last of his drink.  
Gabriel nodded. "I know Dean didn't do any of it. My next stop is at the house of the student who does."

The four continued to talk and make plans, if they were needed. Soon Gabriel got ready to go and Dean walked him back to his car. "It'll be fine, Dean, you'll see." Gabriel said. He noticed that Dean was staring at him. "What, Dean?"  
"Nothing, just wish I could kiss you goodbye is all." Dean admitted. Gabriel just looked at him. "I know, I know. We'll talk after graduation."

Time went on and things progressed. The play went off without a hitch, nothing majorly disastrous happened and Dean had been able to keep the prop room running smoothly. The dedication to Ruby in the program had made him gag a bit, but he kept it to himself. Gabriel had been right about Zachariah. He was a tool, and after the flask had been given to the police; it had been determined that yes, Ruby had been drinking out of it. Her fingerprints and traces of saliva were on it. Along with three of her friends. When he heard this, Zachariah backed off and apologized to Dean and Gabriel. Neither of them really believed him, but they were willing to take what they could.

With the play out of the way, Dean and Gabriel focused more on finals and the last few weeks of school. Both Dean and Sam were lean, mean study machines. The only real times that Gabriel saw Dean were in class, and sometimes in the halls between classes. Gabriel wasn't sure if he liked that or not. Finals passed in a blur, Dean was sure he had never studied so hard in his life. He was afraid at one point to pick up a book because he thought he'd forget something important, he had stuffed his brain so full. The next thing he knew, it was graduation.

"Thank God for small favors." Dean muttered as he checked his outfit in the mirror for what felt like the nine millionth time. Black dress slacks and a silver gray dress shirt looked fine on him, so Dean brushed his hair again and left it at that. The Winchesters soon rolled up to the school and John and Sam got their seats while Dean joined the other students in his class.

Gabriel sat in the stands watching them fill as people came into the gym. He waved to John and Sam and moved over for Kali and a few other teachers. "Hey Kali." Gabriel said.  
"Hello Gabriel." Kali replied coolly. She still smiled at him, but it wasn't as warm as it once was, it made Gabriel equal amounts of sad and happy. Mostly he wasn't really sure how he felt about Kali. He liked her a lot, and loved her enthusiasm in bed, but he wasn't sure if he loved her. Part of him was afraid the answer was no, but he desperately wanted it to be yes. Gabriel sighed to himself and focused his attention on the stage as the students filed in.

After the ceremony, Gabriel was heading back to his car, when he heard his name called. It was Kali. Gabriel waited for her to catch up to him.  
"Gabriel."  
"Kali."  
"Do you remember when we talked about the two of us going back to India to visit my family?" Kali asked.  
Gabriel nodded. "I do. Did something happen? Is everything okay?"  
"Everything's fine. With me. It's you I'm worried about."  
Gabriel looked at Kali in confusion. "What about me? There's nothing wrong with me."  
"Maybe wrong is the wrong word to use, but there is something bothering you."  
"No, there isn't." Gabriel automatically denied, shaking his head.  
"Yes, there is Gabriel. You just don't want to see it, but I can." Kali replied. "You're in love with someone else."  
"No!" Gabriel vehemently denied.  
"Yes you are. Can you even remember the last time we made love? The last time we did nothing but lay in bed together all day? Because I can, Gabriel, and it's been a damn long time. I'm going home, I'll be back at the start of August. If you've managed to work through whatever it is that's bothering you, call me, we'll talk about us then."  
"Kali, I-" Gabriel started to say, before Kali pressed a finger to his mouth to silence him.  
"Shush. Do what you need to do. I'll understand, no matter what happens." she said, before kissing Gabriel goodbye and walking away.

Gabriel let her go without a word.

Dean worked his way through the crowd towards John and Sam. Every once in a while he'd be stopped by a fellow student or a teacher and told congratulations. If asked where he was going to school in the fall, he'd just reply that he hadn't made up his mind yet and move on.  
"Dean! Congrats, I'm so proud of you!" John said, once Dean had reached them. He hugged Dean. "Really, I am. Your mother would be too."  
"Thanks Dad." Dean smiled.  
Sam just grinned and hugged him as well.

It was while they were walking through the parking lot back to the Impala, that Dean and Gabriel saw each other, their eyes meeting briefly for a moment. Before Dean got into the car, he saw Gabriel smile and flash him a thumbs up. Dean smiled back and got into the Impala, resolving to see Gabriel as soon as he could.  
"Hey Dad? Can I borrow the car tonight? There a friend of mine I need to see."  
"After dinner, sure. By the way, pick a place, tonight's special, so we're eating out."

After dinner and a change of clothes, Dean got the keys from John and took off on his own. After wandering aimlessly around town for a bit, Dean found himself in front of Gabriel's house. Dean sat there in the car for a moment before deciding to go up to the door. The porch light was on, but that didn't necessary mean that Gabriel was home. Dean knocked on the door and waited.  
"Just a minute." Dean heard through the door.  
There was the click of a chain being undone and the slide of a deadbolt being opened. The door opened and Gabriel stood at the door in a pair of faded blue jeans worn soft and a snug white t shirt.  
Dean's brain clicked off for just a moment as he stared at Gabriel, before snapping back on to say hello.

"We need to talk." Dean said, doing his best to keep his eyes on Gabriel's face, a move that wasn't missed by Gabriel.  
"Yeah, we do." he replied, doing _his_ best to not smirk. Gabriel opened the door further and Dean walked in. "Something to drink?" Gabriel asked, shutting the door and walking past Dean on his way to the kitchen.  
"A soda if you've got it." Dean replied, following Gabriel.  
"I do, feel free to make yourself at home in the living room." Gabriel called over his shoulder, taking a glass from the cabinet and pouring some ice into it.  
Dean nodded and turned towards the living room, shrugging out of his jacket and lying it across a nearby chair, before debating on if he should sit on the sofa or not.  
 _"Fuck it. I'm gonna sit on the sofa, at least it has some good memories."_ Dean thought and plopped down on it.

Gabriel came in and handed Dean his drink before sitting on the sofa himself.  
"So I graduated."  
"I saw. Congratulations by the way, any idea where you want to go to school this fall?" Gabriel asked, sipping from his glass.  
"I'm thinking of taking the fall semester off and starting in the spring." Dean said.  
"Not a bad idea, gives you time to think about what you want." Gabriel conceded.  
"I got a lot of ideas, but I don't really know where to begin."  
"I could help, if you like."  
"I would, thanks."  
"Not a problem. Have you thought about going to a technical school? You're good with your hands, did a great job with the play."  
"I have, but while I like what we did with the show, it's really more of a hobby sort of thing. I can't really see myself doing it for a living."

They talked about things for a while longer before Dean asked Gabriel what he thought about Dean being a teacher.  
"I could see that. What subject?" Gabriel drank from his glass.  
"One of the sciences. Astronomy, maybe? Or cooking. I do like food." Dean thought out loud.  
"Stargazing. I like it." Gabriel grinned. "I know of a few places that would be good for that."  
"Turning me into a teacher or looking at stars?" Dean asked.  
"Bit of both." Gabriel shrugged. "You any good with food?"  
"According to my family I am. Dean Winchester, Home Ec teacher. Sound good? Or Dean Winchester, Astronomy teacher."

The level of their glasses dropped down slowly as they moved onto other subjects, slowly getting to the actual reason for Dean being there.  
"You said that we'd talk more once everything had settled." Dean said, his fingers tapping on the sofa arm. "Unless you and Kali are still together?"  
"Not really, no. She's going to India for the summer and I was supposed to go with her, but she said that I had too much going on. So she went alone." Gabriel drained the rest of his glass.  
"She did?" Dean asked.  
"Yeah, so I'm taking the summer to figure some stuff out."  
"Oh. Are we part of that?"  
"Yes. She doesn't know that as far as I know, but yes, you and I are something I need to think about."  
"All right then. You know that I want to be together, but I'll give you time to think about it. I've taken up enough of your time anyway. Have a good night." Dean got up and went to get his jacket from the chair.  
Gabriel followed and stopped Dean's hand from picking up his jacket and instead cupped Dean's face between his hands and kissed him deeply. "Stay." Gabriel whispered against Dean's lips.

Dean stood in stunned stillness before he got with the program and hungrily kissed Gabriel back, pulling the older man flush against him. "You sure?" he asked, running his thumbs under the shirt's hem line around Gabriel's back. "Thought you need to think about this."  
"Fuck thinking. I let you walk out of here before, I'm not doing it again." Gabriel growled against Dean's mouth, nipping him lightly.  
"You made us stop in the middle of a serious make out session and made me leave." Dean corrected, hands slipping under fabric to touch more of Gabriel's back.  
"Yeah, I let you walk away." Gabriel replied, pulling Dean's flannel shirt off and dropping it to the floor. "And what is it with you and all the layers?" Gabriel pushed the front of Dean's T-shirt up, exposing his stomach.  
Dean flinched slightly as Gabriel's hands brushed his skin. "Ticklish." he explained when Gabriel looked at him. "And it's a habit left over from the show, better than getting blood on my uniform."  
"True, would have been almost invisible on the black pants, but shown on the dark blue of the blazer."  
Dean nodded and kissed down Gabriel's neck. "Still can't believe that we got sent to a private school with _uniforms_."  
"At least you have a bit of variety with your uniform, I didn't." Gabriel replied as they kissed and pulled clothing off as Gabriel herded them down the hall towards his bedroom.

Dean's back hit the door first, causing it to fly open and Dean to grunt in surprise and stumble into the room. Gabriel reached out to steady him, pulling Dean back to him with one hand while both of Dean's wrap around Gabriel's waist. The two shuffled towards the bed, jeans shucked off, Gabriel giggling when Dean's become tangled around his legs and feet. He knelt down to help Dean untangle himself.  
"Shut up, this isn't funny." Dean grumbled.  
"It is a little." Gabriel said, pulling off the offending material and kissing his way back up Dean's body, before pushing him onto the bed. "Boxers. I like." He grinned wolfishly before pouncing on Dean. Gabriel leaned down to kiss him, while Dean's hands ran up and down his back. The rest of their clothing was soon removed and the two rutted against each other, the pace starting out slow and picking up. Dean rolled so that Gabriel was under him and kissed along Gabriel's chin and neck, biting on his collar bones. Gabriel's body jerked up and they both moaned at the touch. 

Dean shoved Gabriel's body down and held him by the hips, kissing and licking his way down Gabriel's torso, taking the time to nurse and suckle on Gabriel's nipples, chuckling throatily when Gabriel hissed and whined, bucking up into Dean's mouth. Gabriel's fingers twisted into Dean's hair, pulling just hard enough to cause some pain, and the younger man relented his hold on Gabriel's now tender flesh, moving back up to greedily kiss and nibble on his mouth. The two rolled and fought for dominance, the sheets becoming twisted and wrapped around them. At one point they had to stop to untangle themselves, the sheets had become so snarled up. Gabriel smiled as the image of Dean tied to his bed, spread open, floated through his head and he promised to see that it would happen someday. 

Gabriel rached over to the night stand and took out a bottle of lube and a condom, tossing them both on to the tabletop and shutting the drawer. Soon Gabriel's fingers were coated with lube and he looked at Dean seriously as he rubbed the silky fluid between his fingers and thumb. "You're sure about this?" he asked. A part of him screamed and swore at him for the further delay, but Gabriel wanted to be completely on board with Dean and what they both wanted. The two of them and their relationship had been through so much, that the last thing Gabriel wanted to do, was rush when one of them wasn't ready. Better to take the extra step and make sure, then to regret not doing so later.

Dean nodded, his blood pounding thickly through his veins, body begging for release. "Yeah. Now, would you please for the love of God, just fuck me already?" he asked.  
"Hands and knees." Gabriel replied, getting off Dean so he could move. Dean moved so he was on all fours, a pillow nestled by his head. _"Thank God for silicone lube."_ Gabriel thought, as he gently pressed one digit to Dean's entrance and began to work him open. Dean hissed at the intrusion, but soon relaxed, allowing Gabriel's fingers to slide in and out easily. After Gabriel deemed Dean sufficiently prepped, he quickly rolled on a condom and laid a hand at the base of Dean's spine for reassurance. Dean had let loose a sound that he would later deny was a whimper at the loss of Gabriel inside him, but stilled at the touch on his back.

Gabriel eased himself inside Dean as gently as he could, one hand on Dean's hip. He hissed at the heat that surrounded him, and resisted the urge to mindlessly thrust into Dean, opting to instead circle his hips. Dean moaned happily, a shiver running down and then up his spine. "I'm not made of fucking glass, Gabriel, _move!_ " he panted, thrusting back to prove his point. Gabriel growled and both hands wrapped themselves around Dean's waist, holding him still.  
"Hold still." he commanded. "You will not move unless I tell you to." He could feel Dean shudder under him.  
"You and that damn voice." Dean hissed.  
"You like my voice, don't you?" Gabriel asked. He trailed a fingertip lazily up Dean's back.  
Dean just nodded, there was just _something_ about Gabriel's Teacher Voice, that got to him and turned him on so bad. His arms were beginning to tremble a little bit. He shifted slightly, trying to stop the shaking.  
"I said, no moving." Gabriel rasped, lightly smacking Dean's flank.

Dean jerked at the contact, a moan barely contained by both of them. "Is that how things are going to go?" he asked.  
"No, just wanna make sure you're paying attention, is all." Gabriel replied, readjusting his grip and beginning to move. The rhythm that Gabriel set started slow and gentle, before picking up speed, Dean clenching around him in response. Gabriel leaned forward, nipping and kissing at Dean's shoulder. "Wanted to be with you so bad. Killed me when we couldn't be." he whispered in Dean's earlobe, biting down on his shoulder.

Dean whined at the bite and bucked under Gabriel's body. "Missed you too." he admitted. There would be a set of teeth shaped bruises come the morning.  
"Not letting you go again." Gabriel leaned back up and snapped his hips forward forcefully. "You hear me Dean? Never. Ever. Again." Gabriel reiterated snapping his hips forward with each word.  
"Yes!" Dean gasped in pleasure, his upper body slumping forward onto the bed, as Gabriel held him with one hand and the other slid forward wrapping around Dean's erection, stroking him. "Gabriel!" he cried out, thrusting into Gabriel's hand.  
Gabriel smiled. "You like that, baby?" he asked, squeezing and stroking down.  
Dean's entire body shuddered and he nodded, gasping in passion. "God, yes, don't you dare stop." he choked out.  
"I'm not." Gabriel replied. "Sit up?" he asked, pulling Dean with him, legs opening more as Gabriel moved to his knees.

Dean moaned loudly as Gabriel wrapped one hand around his cock and the other on his hip, Gabriel's thrusts filling his body and making him ache. Dean blindly dug his nails on his right hand into Gabriel's knee, bucking wildly into Gabriel's hand, his head lying on Gabriel's shoulder, watching him.  
"So beautiful." Gabriel whispered, kissing Dean. Dean kissed Gabriel back, his hips stuttering in the older man's hands, Gabriel swallowing his cries as Dean spilled warmly into his hand.  
Gabriel picked up speed and bit Dean's shoulder again as he came, groaning against Dean's flesh. They collapsed to the bed and Gabriel eased out of Dean as gently as he could.  
"You all right?" Gabriel asked after disposing with the condom, scooting close to Dean on the bed.  
"Yeah, you?" Dean nodded and asked.  
"I'm fine." Gabriel said, as Dean brushed away a strand of hair clinging to Gabriel's forehead. "Could use a shower, but I'm good."  
Dean grinned wickedly. "Then let's grab a shower. I promise to behave."  
Gabriel laughed and kissed Dean. "It's more fun if you don't."

Round two took place in the shower. Apparently, Dean found a soapy and soaking wet Gabriel irresistible, dropping to his knees and giving Gabriel a fucking _amazing_ blowjob, with a little instruction from his favorite teacher. Gabriel made a note to use his Teacher Voice more often if good things like that were going to happen. They fell exhausted into bed after drying off and fell asleep curled up around each other.

The next morning the sounds of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" trickled through the fog that was Dean's brain. He ignored it at first, happy when the phone stopped ringing, growling when it started up again. Dean stumbled from Gabriel's embrace and groped through his pants to get his phone.  
"'lo?" He mumbled sleepily, sitting back on the bed.  
"Dean?" Everything all right?" came his father's voice over the line.  
"Dad?" Dean asked as his brain kicked from semi asleep to wide awake. _"Oh crap! I stayed out all night."_ he thought.  
"Yeah. Where are you? Are you okay? You didn't come home." John said.  
"I'm fine!" Dean quickly replied. "Sorry, I got to celebrating with friends and it was late and I crashed with them. I didn't want to chance anything driving late at night. I'm sorry I didn't call."  
"That's fine Dean, but next time call okay?"  
"Yes sir." Dean nodded.  
"Coming home soon?' John asked.

Dean looked at Gabriel's bedside clock, it was about 10 o'clock. "Yeah, I'll be home soon." he said.  
"Okay then, see you soon." John said and hung up.  
"Dammit." Dean hissed, looking at his phone.  
"Leaving so soon?' Gabriel asked, sitting up, the sheets pooling around his waist. He had woken up while Dean and John were talking and had quietly listened to Dean's side of the conversation.  
"It's my dad. He worries." Dean apologized. "Wish I could stay."  
"Don't worry, I understand." Gabriel replied, moving to Dean's side. He leaned his head on Dean's shoulder and the two held each other for a moment. "You should go, before your dad calls again." Gabriel said, kissing Dean's cheek and getting out of bed. Dean watched as Gabriel walked naked to his closet and began to get dressed. "Dean," he called, looking over.  
"Yeah?" Dean asked, distracted.  
"Get dressed." Gabriel laughed, tossing Dean his jeans, smacking him in the face.

Soon they were dressed, and Gabriel had Dean pressed against the back of the front door in a passionate kiss goodbye.  
"I need to go." Dean mumbled against Gabriel's mouth.  
"You need to go." Gabriel agreed giving Dean one more kiss and then reluctantly moving to open the door. "Bring what school information you've got, by later, I'll help you sort through it all."  
"Thanks. Bye Gabriel." Dean smiled.  
"You're welcome, Dean." Gabriel smiled in return.

Dean opened the front door and walked into the house.  
"Hey Dean." John called from the kitchen.  
"Hi Dad." Dean called, putting up his coat. "Sorry for staying out all night." Dean made his way to the kitchen and went straight for the coffee pot.  
"It's all right, you only graduate high school once." John said from the sink of dishes. "Any idea on what you want to do for college? Have fun with your friends?" he asked.  
Dean blushed at the second question and answered "Yes." for both.  
"Good. The sooner you're out, the better."  
Dean's head jerked up in shock. "Seriously?"  
John looked over from the sink full of dishes. "Does this face _look_ serious?"  
"Yeah."  
"Damn, I'm good." John smirked.

It was then, that Dean knew that John was fucking with him. "Oh very funny." He snorted and stuck out his tongue.  
"I'm hysterical. Besides, how else am I supposed to have wild parties with you here? Would totally ruin my image." John replied.  
"You still have Sam, Dad."  
"At the rate that kid's going, he'll be graduated in two years."  
"I heard that." Sam yelled from another part of the house.  
"Then quit listening!" Dean shot back, finishing his coffee.  
"Got plans for today?" John asked as he began to dry the dishes.  
Dean moved over to help. "Yep. Going over to Mr. Novak's to get some help with college stuff."  
"Always nice to get help. Anything specific in mind?"  
"Either Astronomy, or something with cooking. Thinking about being a teacher."  
John considered Dean's words. "Never really pictured you as a teacher, but it could work." He put down the glass he was drying. "My son, the teacher. I think I like the way that sounds."  
"Me too."

Later in the afternoon, Dean found himself back at Gabriel's, necking in his kitchen.  
"You know, I actually came over for help." Dean giggled as Gabriel nibbled on his neck.  
"I know. We're taking a break. We'll get back to work soon." Gabriel replied. After several more minutes, they pulled apart and sat back at the kitchen table. Dean began to look at and fill out applications, occasionally stopping to ask Gabriel questions on something that needed to be filled out and about his time in college.

"Seriously? You did that?" Dean asked.  
"Totally serious. Next thing I know, I'm running down the quad in my boxers in the dead of winter with a dragon painted on my back."  
"Sounds cold." Dean said, signing the last sheet on a rather long application.  
"It was. Luckily most of the snow was gone. The dragon looked awesome, I'll have to show you, if I can find the pictures."  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah. I was dating an artist named Bonnie at the time. She was damn good."

Dean addressed the last application and added it to the pile. He had several ready to go and was ready to call it quits for the day. Dean yawned, standing up to stretch his back.  
"Dinner sound good?" Gabriel asked.  
"Hell yeah. Let me call my dad." Dean replied.  
"Pizza okay?"  
Dean nodded. "When is it not? Anything but anchovies or onions works for me." He called John while Gabriel ordered the pizza. Dean helped himself to a soda and poured one for Gabriel, handing it to him when Gabriel was done.  
"Aw, sweetie, you shouldn't have." Gabriel laughed softly, kissing Dean lightly on the mouth.  
"Okay, I won't, then." Dean grinned and tried to take the drink back.  
"Hey, hey, no. My drink." Gabriel protested, protecting his soda from Dean's hands.

After dinner, Dean grabbed his applications and Gabriel walked him to the door. "Thank you so much, Gabriel. You helped a lot and gave me a ton of ideas."  
"You're welcome, Dean, let me know if you have any more questions."  
"I will." Dean shifted his papers to one arm and kissed Gabriel on the cheek. "Bye, Gabriel."  
Gabriel grabbed Dean's free arm and tugged him close. "Kiss me like you mean it, Winchester."  
Dean put the completed applications down on the table near the door and yanked Gabriel to him before kissing him deeply. "Better?" he asked, pulling back after several minutes.  
Gabriel just nodded and opened the door.  
"See you later Gabriel." Dean said, picking up his papers and walking out.


	3. Chapter Three

That night, Gabriel was flipping through his phone's texts and voice mail, when a message popped up.

**You don't have my number. Here it is.  
-Dean**

Gabriel chuckled and smiled to himself before texting back:

_Thanks, now I know you've got mine, again. Could of asked before you know. :p_

A few moments later:

**I know, but sneaking it out of your phone was more fun. :)**

Gabriel entered Dean's number into his directory before replying:

_Remind me to show what kind of fun we can have later with a phone..._

Gabriel stared at the screen thumb tapping the side of the phone before deciding to send the message.

**I look forward to it. ;)** came the prompt reply.  
 _I bet you do, saucy little minx..._ Gabriel sent back and then sent _Too bad I'm not telling you when._

Almost immediately, a text came back.

**That is so unfucking fair, you tease!**

Gabriel laughed at the message, mentally seeing the look on Dean's face, and started typing.

_That's part of the fun. :) Sweet dreams Dean._

Before he turned off the phone for the night, Gabriel got another message: **Still not fair. Good night to you too Gabriel.**

Gabriel smiled, and turned the phone off, setting it on the bedside table before falling asleep.

And so the summer progressed, with Dean and Gabriel spending much of it together, both in and out of bed. A lot of that was in bed or mostly naked, but neither Dean nor Gabriel was going to complain about it.  
"Hey, did you get in the application to Harvelle yet?" Gabriel asked one afternoon while rubbing Dean's back on the living room floor. They had just finished cleaning the Impala and after drying off, had stretched out on the fluffy white rug Gabriel had brought the week before to relax.  
"Mailed it out a couple of days ago, should be hearing back sometimes in October or November. Why?" Dean replied, groaning as Gabriel applied pressure to his lower back.  
"Just curious. It was for the culinary school right?" Gabriel began to work his way up Dean's spine, digging his fingers into the vertebrae.  
"Yeah. I'll need to go in for a cooking audition in the fall and an interview and then they'll let me know if they want me."  
"They will. They'd be crazy not to." Gabriel leaned into Dean's shoulders.  
"Think so?"  
"I know so."

"Hey Gabriel. I got a question." Dean said one night as they lay in bed. Dean had snuck over after John had gone to bed.  
Gabriel traced patterns in the cooling sweat on Dean's chest, brushing against the hickie he had left on Dean's collarbone. "Shoot, babe, what is it?"  
"What ever happened between you and Kali? When is she supposed to be back anyway?" Dean asked softly, eyes glancing at Gabriel's and then briefly away.  
"Pretty much what I told you earlier and at the start of August." Gabriel replied.  
"No. I mean, why did you date her?"  
"Because I liked her. She was smart, she was funny, she's beautiful, and... and I really liked her." Gabriel finished quietly. "I really, really did."  
"Did you love her?" Dean hated to ask, but he wanted to know.

It took Gabriel opening and closing his mouth twice before he could answer Dean. "I wanted to. I wanted to so badly Dean. But I couldn't. I just...couldn't."  
"Because of me." Dean stated. Gabriel had looked so happy with her, even if it killed Dean to see it.  
"No, because of me. I couldn't love her, because of me. I couldn't give her all of myself because you already owned a big part of me, even if I couldn't admit it yet, and she could never touch it. I think she saw it before I ever did. I think that's part of why she left." Gabriel tilted his head up and kissed Dean's jaw. "Why all the questions?"  
"No reason, just curious."

July rolled into August. Kali came back into town and she and Gabriel talked. There was no big screaming fight, just a quiet, sad talk between the two as they finally realized that they were nothing but very close friends. They loved each other, but not the way the other needed. Kali watched Dean and Gabriel's interactions together and her suspicions of prom night were confirmed, but she still didn't say anything to either of them, it wasn't her place.

By the time October rolled around, Dean was holding an envelope from Harvelle in his hands. They had heard from a bunch of places on and off since the middle of September, but Harvelle was the one Dean really wanted to hear from.  
"Open it already, Dean." Sam said as all three of the Winchester men sat at the kitchen table.  
"It's not going to bite you, son." John spoke up. "Open it."  
Dean stared at the envelope before picking it up and opening it His eyes ran over the neatly typed lines in front of him, twice.  
"Well?" Sam and John asked. "Don't keep us in suspense, what'd they say?"  
"I got in." Dean said, still stunned at what he had read "'Dear Dean Winchester, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted for admission to Harvelle University.'" he quoted without looking at the paper.

At those words, pandemonium broke out in the Winchester house, both John and Sam making enough noise to wake the dead.  
"I guess my interview and cooking audition really impressed someone, then." Dean said.  
"Looks like." John laughed. "My son's a college man now." He smiled.  
"Yeah." Dean continued to read the letter. "It looks like I got some sort of scholarship as well." Dean's hands were beginning to shake a bit, so he was having trouble reading the acceptance letter. "I've gotta tell Gabriel. Can I borrow the car?"  
"Sure, she's all yours." John tossed him the keys.  
"Thanks Dad, bye." Dean called as he caught them and took off for Gabriel's.

Dean called ahead on the way, so when he got there, he just let himself in. Gabriel wasn't in the house, so Dean walked out into the back yard, where Gabriel was doing some yard work.  
"Hey Gabriel! Check this out." Dean called, waving the letter in the air.  
"What is it?" Gabriel asked, setting aside the rake as Dean came up to him.  
"A letter from Harvelle. I got in. They want me to come to school there." Dean handed Gabriel the letter so he could read it for himself.  
"'Dear Dean Winchester...'" Gabriel read the letter, his smile getting bigger as he read. As he finished, he let the paper drop to the ground and kissed Dean square on the mouth, cupping his face. Dean squeaked in surprise, kissing Gabriel back, his hands going around Gabriel's waist.

They kissed for a few minutes before Gabriel pulled back and smiled. "Congratulations baby, I knew you could do it."  
Dean blushed. "Thanks."  
Gabriel kissed him again. "Gonna be the damn best Culinary Artist at that school. We should celebrate, come on." Gabriel pulled Dean towards the house.  
"And just how are we going to do that?" Dean asked as they came back in.  
"You'll see." Gabriel replied, leading Dean towards the bedroom.  
Dean grinned. "I think I like celebrating like this."  
They crawled onto the bed, kissing and nipping on each other's skin, making short work of their clothing.

"So glad you stopped wearing layers. Makes it easier to get you naked." Gabriel growled, licking a wet stripe up Dean's chest, pressing him down to the mattress.  
Dean just dug his fingers into Gabriel's shoulders and rocked his hips up against Gabriel's.  
"Always so impatient." Gabriel smirked from between Dean's legs as a hand drifted down and stroked Dean's cock firmly.   
Dean groaned, eyes fluttering as he thrust up into Gabriel's hand. "Fucking tease." he ground out.  
"You love it." Gabriel replied, stroking faster.  
"God, yes." Dean bucked up harder, whining when Gabriel stopped, protesting until he saw that Gabriel had pulled out an unopened condom and a bottle of lube. Gabriel leaned back over Dean and they kissed slow and lazy before Dean flipped the two of them so that he was on top. Gabriel just laughed and pulled him close.

"Okay, last bag." Dean tossed a bag in the trunk of the Impala and slammed it shut. The car was his now, John had given it to him as a going away gift for college. He turned to John and Sam, both of them bundled up, waiting for their goodbye from him. Dean hugged John first.  
"Good luck, you're sure you got everything?" John asked for what felt like the hundredth time.  
"Yeah Dad, I do." Dean replied.  
"Call when you get there."  
"I will. Be the first thing I do when I get in my room." Dean said, nodding.  
John clapped him on the back. "If your mother was here, she'd be crying. Be careful, okay?"  
"Yes, sir."

Dean turned to Sam. "Come here, shrimp." he said, holding out his arms.  
"I'm _not_ a shrimp." Sam grumbled. "I'm almost as tall as you." Sam still was happy to take Dean's hug.  
"Whatever. You're still shrimpy." Dean snickered, hugging Sam tightly. "Take care of Dad. You're all he has now." Dean whispered in Sam's ear.  
"Okay." Sam nodded.   
Dean let go, fishing the keys out of his jean pocket. "Alrighty, I gotta get going. See you guys later." And with that he got in the Impala and took off for school.

Well, not completely. He still had one more stop to make. Dean pulled up in front of Gabriel's house and knocked on the door.  
"Hey." he said when the door opened.  
"Hey. On your way out?" Gabriel asked.  
"Yep. Wanted to say goodbye before I hit the road and make sure you had my address." Dean pulled a slip of paper out of his back pocket, handing it to Gabriel. "Here."  
"Thank you." Gabriel slipped it into his pocket. "Have a safe trip, call when you get there."  
"To you and Dad both." Dean smiled and leaned forward, wrapping Gabriel in a hug. "Gonna miss you. Wish I wasn't so far away."  
Gabriel hugged Dean back fiercely. "It's only six hours. You'll be fine, we'll call, e-mail, send each other stuff in the mail. It won't be forever Dean. Besides we've got Spring Break to look forward to and Summer Break after that."  
"I know. Still gonna miss you, expect naughty voice mails while at work." Dean sighed, loathe to let go just yet.  
"With pleasure." Gabriel smiled, leaning up to kiss Dean.  
"You better." Dean replied, kissing back.

Dean collapsed onto his bed and grinned to himself. Six hours later, he had gotten into town and past some crazy traffic once he hit campus, he had found his dorm and then survived check in. He had lucked out and gotten his own room. His stuff was all strewn about at the moment, but he would unpack as soon as he could. Dean reached for his phone and thumbed through his contacts, stopping on Sam's and John's numbers. He sent both of them the same text.

**At school, finally. So tired.**

He then texted Gabriel.

**Hey baby, at school, check in was crazy. So tired. Miss you.**

The noise of people moving in, circled around Dean as he got back replies. 

_Good to know you made it in one piece_ From John.

_Hey Dean! Miss you._ From Sam.

_Miss you too. It'll calm down soon, enjoy move in week and don't forget to get the Impala registered tomorrow, unless you want a ticket that badly._ From Gabriel.

Dean grinned before texting back **Yes, sir. Got my own room too.** After hitting send, Dean sat up and began to unpack.

Soon Dean got into the flow of school and most of the time collapsed into bed dead tired. He did keep in touch with his family and Gabriel had called and they talked several times, but this weekend was the first that Dean had had free in a long time. He was all caught up with his work, Friday's classes had been canceled for the day, and Gabriel was on his way up for the weekend. He was taking Thursday off and it was a three day weekend for him as well. Dean's phone rang, he knew from the ringtone it was Gabriel.  
"Hey Gabriel." he said, picking up the phone.  
"Hey, hey lover boy. I'm in town and checked in at the hotel, room 314."  
"I'll be right there." Dean replied, grabbing his keys on the way out the door.

Ten minutes later there was a knock on Gabriel's door.   
"Room service." called a voice.  
Gabriel opened the door to reveal Dean on the other side. "Oh good, just what I was wanting." Gabriel said, letting Dean in. Dean grinned at him before pulling Gabriel towards him for a kiss hello and then pushing him onto the bed.  
"Missed you." Dean whispered, pouncing onto Gabriel and kissing him again.  
"I missed you too." Gabriel replied between kisses.

Dean's hands disappeared beneath Gabriel's shirt, running up and down his chest before pulling off the shirt and tossing it to the floor. More clothing soon followed it and Gabriel was quickly trying to not scream himself hoarse, as Dean was doing his damnest to suck Gabriel's brain through his dick. Gabriel was thrashing so vigorously that Dean had to hold him down with an arm across his hips. After one rather violent thrust, Dean pulled off with a pop and glared at Gabriel.  
"If you don't stop thrashing about, Gabriel Novak, I'll stop right now and leave you with a serious case of blue balls. Honestly, you'd think this was your first blow job to be received." Dean snarled. It wasn't, but it had been a damn long time since they had been together.  
"Seriously? You'd do that to me?" Gabriel asked, once enough blood had managed to circulate through his head.  
Dean nodded. "Dead serious. Your hand will get another work out in the next five minutes if you don't."  
"Okay, I'll be good." Gabriel nodded, the look on Dean's face more than enough to convince him.

"How'd you do on your test for English?" Gabriel asked later.  
"No! No talk of school." Dean groaned into the pillows.  
"Then answer the question." Gabriel replied.  
"I did fine." Dean yawned.  
"Good." Gabriel smiled and the two fell asleep.

The weekend was over too soon for Dean's taste. Hugging Gabriel goodbye was harder then he thought it was going to be. "I wish you didn't have to go." Dean said.  
"Me too." Gabriel kissed Dean quick on the mouth, if he was going to be back in time, he would need to leave now.  
"Love you." Dean blurted out. He had no idea why he said it, it just seemed like a good thing to do.

Gabriel pulled back, arms loose around Dean, eyes searching Dean's. "You mean that?" he asked softly. A shiver ran up Gabriel's spine as he traced a finger down the side of Dean's face and cupped his chin. "Seriously, do you mean it Dean?"  
"Yes. I love you, Gabriel Novak." Dean repeated.  
Gabriel grinned and kissed Dean fast and hard. "I love you too, Dean Winchester."

Dean put the last ramekin in the dishwasher. If he had to make another crème brûlée, so help him God... Dean put in the soap and shut the door, starting a load of dishes. He picked up the tray of finished desserts and walked out the door, handing the tray off to a waiter's side table.  
"Last of the crème brûlée." he said, pulling on the cuff of his white dress shirt. Tonight, his group was in charge of dessert for a dinner the school was hosting for alumni. The following month, they would be switched over to the actual meal itself. All of this was to see how they handled cooking for large groups, cooking under pressure and with different dietary needs. Even those that wanted to use their skills to teach were expected to participate, but their cooking classes were supplemented with Education courses. Dean sighed to himself and got back to work.

Gabriel put down his pen and got up from his desk, walking around to stretch his back. It was time for a break, his eyes were starting to cross from staying up late to grade papers. Good thing it was Friday. He could sleep in tomorrow. His phone beeped while he was getting a drink. Gabriel looked at the message.

**Smell like burnt sugar and caramel. Fucking crème brûlée.**

From the sound of things this was from Dean. _"Sounds like the dinner went fine._ Gabriel thought, while getting another text, also Dean.

**So tired, going to bed, love you, night.** Followed by **After a shower, I can FEEL the sugar on me.**

Gabriel chuckled at that and texted back _Poor baby, love you too. Too bad I'm not there to lick it off you._

A moment later Dean replied **Screw you. I'd be too tired to enjoy it and you know that! Unless you don't mind me falling asleep on you?**

Gabriel snorted and typed out _Like you would, you'd love every second of it. Take a shower and go to bed, love. I'll see you in a few weeks._ He hit send and a few minutes later, got a reply.

**I know. Can't wait to see you too. Okay, so shower, bed, sleep. Night, love you.**

_Night, love you too._ Gabriel hit send and turned off his phone before putting it on the charger.

Time went on, and Dean and Gabriel met whenever they could and talked frequently on the phone. It was Dean's sophomore year when he came to the decision to tell John that he would be staying with Gabriel that summer and not at home.  
"Do you want me to be with you?" Gabriel asked over the phone, the night before Dean was to come home.  
"Thanks baby, but I'll be fine. I think." Dean replied, as he packed his last box.  
"Alright. Call if you change your mind." Gabriel said.  
"I will."

The drive home was a huge blank in Dean's head. He honestly didn't know how he got from school to his house, he just knew that he did. Dean got out of the car and walked into the house.  
"Hey Dean, welcome home." John called from the living room, getting up to give Dean a hug.  
"Hey Dad." Dean said, hugging him back. "Can we talk? I've got something important to tell you."  
"Sure, what is it?" John asked as they headed to the kitchen for drinks and then sat at the table.

Dean remembered that the last time they did this, it was about something that had the potential to ruin everything. He hoped it doesn't happen this time as well.  
"You know I'm seeing someone right?" Dean asked.  
John nodded. "I figured that out when you started spending so much time out of the house. Who is she?"  
Dean swallowed nervously, sipping his soda. "She's a he, actually." he said, eyes locked onto the table, following the wood grain.  
"A guy?" John asked, surprise lacing his voice.  
"Yeah." Dean replied softly. "A guy." _"Please be okay with this."_ he thought.  
"So what's his name?" John asked. "Have I met him?"  
Dean nodded. "It's Gabriel."  
"Gabriel? Gabriel _Novak_? Your teacher?" John burst out. "That Gabriel?"  
"Yes, that Gabriel. But he wasn't my teacher when we got together." Technically, that was true, Gabriel _hadn't_ been Dean's teacher when they had finally gotten together. "He's invited me to stay with him, I've decided to take him up on the offer."  
"Alright. Do you need anything from here?" John asked.  
"A few things. You're okay with this?" Dean asked in surprise.  
"If you're happy with him, then I'm happy for you." John said, leaving it at that.  
"Thanks Dad."  
"You're welcome. Now go home to your boyfriend."

The rest of college swept by Dean in a frenzy of cooking classes, Gabriel, his teaching certification, Gabriel, job hunting, which he hated, and was convinced that he would never find a job at all, and Gabriel.

All the angst over a job came to a screeching halt when Gabriel handed him the phone one night. "It's Rachel Moore, from the school district, she wants to talk to you about a job at the high school." he hissed, handing Dean the phone.  
"Really?" Dean asked, taking the phone. Gabriel nodded. Dean talked to Rachel for several minutes before hanging up.  
"Well?" Gabriel asked excitedly.  
"I have an interview for the Home Ec position on Wednesday." Dean said, handing Gabriel back the phone.  
Gabriel whooped and grinned like a lunatic, hugging Dean.  
"Act like I got the job already..." Dean mumbled.  
"You will, just watch."

Dean passed his interview with flying colors and on his way out, saw a listing for a Latin teacher as well. When he mentioned it to Gabriel later that night at dinner, Gabriel explained that Kali had moved on.  
"Why? I thought she liked teaching there." Dean said.  
"She did. But she likes being on the Board of Education too." Gabriel replied.  
"Board of Education? What's she doing there?"  
"Going ten rounds with Zach." Gabriel deadpanned.

At Dean's blank look, Gabriel went on to explain that Kali didn't like what Zachariah was doing with the school's funding, and decided to fight back. Apparently, Zachariah wanted to use the money that had been promised to the school as funds for choir, band, art and drama, and the funds that were to be used as the teacher's bonuses, to instead be used to buy some rather expensive metal detectors, security cameras, and security guards. It was all a bunch of fear mongering, and Kali had had enough and ran for a position on the board once one had opened up. One of the older members was retiring and Kali wanted the spot.

With a lot of help and support from the staff, students and parents, she did. The board was now back to seven members and the seventh member was the tie breaker in a vote.  
"She and Zachariah fought like cats and dogs, but she managed to get the money back where it goes," Gabriel finished. "Most of the board loves her, as does the district, and she's very happy with her new job."  
"Oh." Dean said.  
"I think she's one of the people who looks at applications, she probably vouched for you."

Dean soon set up his classroom and fell into the insanity that was his first year as a teacher.  
"I swear to God, these students will be the death of me." Dean groaned one night, flopping onto the bed face first.  
"No, _teaching_ them is what will kill you, not the students." Gabriel snorted, looking up briefly from the papers he was grading. "Anyone a candidate for burning down the school by way of cooking yet?"  
"No, thank God. But some of them might not survive to adulthood for very long due to an inaudibility to cook very well."  
"Not being able to cook well never killed anyone before Dean, I doubt it will now." Gabriel put down the paper he was grading and ran a hand through Dean's hair. "Don't worry, it gets better. First year is always the hardest." he said softly.  
"Gonna hold you to that." came the muffled reply.

Gabriel was right. Dean knew he would be. School evened out, became more a form of controlled chaos and less a form of utter destruction. Things were calm, cool and collected. His students were great and fun to teach, most of them were passing and there were a few that showed promise. One of the young men Dean taught was showing an excellent grasp on baking sweets. When Gabriel had tried the extra credit assignment the student had submitted, chocolate cupcakes with cheesecake frosting, he had nearly swooned with orgasmic delight, demanding that Dean give the student an A.

It was the quiet before the storm, and that should have been Dean's first clue. It was common knowledge to the other teachers that Dean and Gabriel were dating, but none of them knew for how long or how the two got together. Both were rather closed mouth about it and preferred to not talk about it while working. Co-workers had tried to get the story out of either one of them before and after work, but none were successful, not even Balthazar.

It was the quiet before the storm, and shit was about to get real. Very real, and very fast. And it would come in the form of a little red book. An innocent looking red leather bound book, that was anything but.

Zachariah stood in the doorway of his daughter's room. It was exactly as she left it before she died. The only things he had done were to empty her trash can, as she had a habit of leaving orange peels in it, and to unplug any electronics. Otherwise, it was untouched. Her homework was half finished on the desk, her make-up was still spread out of her vanity, clothes were still waiting to be put away in her laundry basket. The room had stood and waited for its owner to come back for over five years now. She wasn't going to, and it was time the room showed that. Zachariah steeped in with the first of several boxes. He had gotten half of the room packed and was in the middle of cleaning out her dresser, when he found her journal. His ex had done the same thing. They even kept their journals in the same drawer. Zachariah ran his hands over the cover and opened the book. Normally he would have left it alone and put it aside to be stored in the attic, but he just needed to see his little girl again. Zachariah began to read the journal.

At first it was the typical teenage girl journal entries. Entries about her friends, what they did together, about clothing and her friends questionable fashion choices, about boys... Zachariah soon grew bored and began to flip through the journal.

_...an and Mr. Novak making out in his classroom._

Wait, what? Zachariah backed up a page or two and began to read.

_Oh my God. I saw Dean and Mr. Novak making out in his classroom. They seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit as well. I doubt they'd want this to get around the school at all. All I have to do is use it to my advantage._

The entry went on to detail what she wanted and wanted to do. Zachariah stopped reading. He had always thought Gabriel was a bit fruity and had never really liked the guy. Too much of a free spirit for Zachariah's tastes. He checked the date on the entry, if it was correct, then Dean had been seventeen at the time, and wasn't Gabriel dating Kali at the time? Zachariah read more of the journal as it covered what Ruby had done to blackmail both Dean and Gabriel and to force Dean to be with her. Ruby had also talked about her suspicions that Kali had known and not said anything.

The last entry was dated the night Ruby died. The writing was a bit shaky, but Ruby had talked about how things were falling apart, that she hadn't won Prom Queen and that she would put both Dean and Gabriel in their places and make them bow to her if it was the last thing she ever did. Zachariah just looked at the book in his hands. It all made sense in a way, his daughter had been onto something. Maybe Dean and Gabriel killed her to shut her up and made it look like an accident. It was the only thing that made sense to him about all of it. Along with the fact that Gabriel had committed indecent acts with a Minor, and Kali seemed to have looked the other way while it happened. Zachariah thought that made her an accessory after the fact. He closed the book and walked out of Ruby's room.

The next morning before school, both Dean and Gabriel were in the Teacher's Lounge getting ready for class and making plans for the night, when Zachariah came in. They both looked up from the table they were at, Dean mid sip from his cup of coffee.  
"Morning Mr. Novak, Mr. Winchester." he said, getting himself a cup of coffee.  
"Morning Superintendent." Gabriel said, going back to his student's essays.  
"How are the both of you?"  
"Fine." Dean replied, setting his cup down and glancing at his lessons for the day. Today his students would be making lemon bars and a chicken and rice casserole.

Zachariah stirred in some cream and sugar before turning to them, leaning against the counter. "Hey, I wondering. You two are together, right?"  
Both Dean and Gabriel nodded, wondering where Zachariah was going with this. Why would he care in the first place?  
"How'd you two meet, when did you get together?" Zachariah took a sip of coffee.  
Gabriel and Dean shared a look. If they weren't going to tell co-workers the nitty gritty details, why would they tell him?  
"It's really none of your business, but we've been together for a few years." Dean said guardedly. They began to gather their things.  
"So since graduation?" Zachariah prodded.  
"Yes." Gabriel grit out. "Why?"  
"No reason, just curious." Zachariah rinsed out his cup, sitting it in the sink and left the room.  
"Fishing expedition much?" asked Dean.  
"Oh yeah." Gabriel nodded. "But what for?"

Later that week, the faculty and staff were called together for an early morning meeting, and were informed that the Superintendent would be taking a permanent office here. No one was particularly thrilled about this, and the applause at the announcement was rather lackluster. The office he chose to take over was one of the Councilors. He took the one that had belonged to Ash. Ash had just gotten it and was now back to sharing an office.  
"Why mine?" Ash asked upon hearing this.  
"Because of its location. Private, and yet able to see out into the school through the windows you have." Zachariah replied.  
Ash muttered to himself and asked if Zachariah would reconsider.  
"No." came the curt reply.  
"Then at least let me get some of my things out of there."  
"That's fine. Be quick."

There was a rustle and clinking noise for a few minutes before Ash appeared, with a box with his jacket tossed over it. The clinking happened again as he walked towards his new office, one he would now share with Garth. There was the very edge of a magazine poking out from under his arm, the publication folded in half.   
Zachariah pulled it free. "What is this? Tell me you didn't bring pornography into the school." He unfolded the magazine.

It was the current issue of Popular Mechanics.

"Not unless car engines get you hot, Zachariah." Ash replied, taking back the magazine.  
Zachariah sighed in disgust and walked into what was now his office.  
"Good thing he didn't look too close, the porn's under the sodas." Ash muttered to Gabriel. At Gabriel's look, he explained, "Confiscated it off a kid a couple of days ago. Haven't had the chance to dispose of it yet."  
"Mr. Novak, could you come in here please?" Zachariah called, poking his head back out.

As soon as he did, Zachariah shut the door behind him.  
"Going to need maintenance in here to clean this place out." he said, looking around. Zachariah's nose wrinkled at the fact that Ash had used a recliner as a desk chair. Gabriel thought it was a neat idea and knew for a fact that the chair was rather comfortable. As were the chairs in front of his desk.  
"It's Ash's office." Gabriel replied. "He can decorate as he wants for the most part." Ash may have been a bit of a stoner while he had gone to school here, but beneath that mullet hair cut was a rather smart man, he just liked to use people's misconceptions about him to his advantage was all.  
"It isn't anymore." Zachariah said.  
"Why did you call me in here?" Gabriel asked.  
"Just need you to look over some papers, that's all." Zachariah pulled some pages from a file he had set aside and handed them to Gabriel.

Gabriel looked at the papers, seeing that what he was looking at were copies. His eyes ran over the pages and he recognized the hand writing and what _exactly_ he was looking at. Apparently Ruby had kept a journal when she had been alive, and what he held in his hands, were copies of some entries from it. Specifically the entries about him and Dean. And from the looks of things, she had been keeping a record ever since his and Dean's first kiss in his classroom.

Gabriel looked up and Zachariah, glaring at him. "What do you want?"  
"Good to know we're on the same page." Zachariah smiled. "You can keep those by the way, I have the book. As for what I want. From you? Nothing, really. I just need you to do something for me, that's all. If you won't, well then, I'll see to it that not only will your career go up in flames, but that of your little boyfriend as well. After all, fraternizing with a student is frowned upon. And if that's not enough, then I'll throw in Ms. Koothrappali too. She's been a pain in my ass ever since she's gotten onto the board. I have no problem in making it known that she knew about your little affair and did nothing about it."

Gabriel flipped through the pages; sure enough, Ruby thought that Kali knew, and her basis was the prom. As far as he knew Kali didn't know about them.  
"Gabriel, are you paying attention?" Zachariah asked. "What I want you to do is distract Kali for me. Tomorrow I'm calling an "emergency" meeting for that night. Take her out for dinner, take your play toy with you if you want, I don't care. Just make sure her phone is silent through dinner."  
"And if she can't come tomorrow?" Gabriel asked.  
"You're a smart man. You'll figure out something." Zachariah replied. And with that he opened the door for Gabriel to leave. Gabriel folded the papers in half and left, his mind turning dark. When the door had clicked shut behind him, he muttered a few choice phrases in Latin involving Zachariah and a goat under his breath, as he left the main office.

It was during lunch that Gabriel asked Kali to dinner for the following night. "We never got to properly celebrate you becoming part of the board, around seven at Carino's good for you?"  
"Sure, is Dean coming with us?" Kali asked.  
Gabriel nodded, he had asked Dean before hand. "Meet you there or want us to pick you up?"  
"I'll meet you guys there."  
Gabriel smiled. "Good, see you then Kali." He spent the rest of lunch in his room grading papers, his appetite totally gone.

The following night, the three of them got together for dinner. It had gone rather well and Gabriel really did enjoy himself. At one point Kali excused herself to the Ladies room and Gabriel managed to get Dean to go to the bar and get him another drink. He reached into Kali's purse and fished out her phone. Sighing to himself, he touched the screen and quickly set the phone to silent, his stomach twisting in on itself. He slipped the phone back into her purse. Dinner went on into the night.  
"That was fun, we should do it again." Dean said as they walked into the house. Dean had had a little bit to drink and he nuzzled Gabriel's neck, nipping on the skin. Gabriel pulled away. "What's wrong?" Dean asked.  
"Not tonight, not in the mood." Gabriel replied. He untangled himself from Dean. "I'm going to bed."

Kali settled into bed, phone in hand. Touching the screen brought up her missed calls menu. Three missed voice mails and several texts. Kali stared at the screen, when had this happened? She didn't remember turning off her ringer. She called her voice mail to listen to her messages. It all boiled down to Zachariah having called an emergency meeting behind her back, and he used it to push through his own agenda. The other had tried to stall as long as they could, but to no avail. Without Kali there, Zachariah had won four to two.

Kali called one of the board members that she knew would still be up. "Madison, what the hell is going on? What meeting, I didn't know about any meeting. What did he do?" she asked, the moment Madison had answered.  
"God, Kali where were you? You really should have been there, we needed you."  
"What happened? I was having dinner with Gabriel and Dean. I didn't know about the meeting at all."  
Madison sighed. "Zachariah got it so that you don't have as much power with the board as you normally do."  
"He did what?" Kali shrieked. She stared at her phone in disbelief. Since getting on the board, Kali had been the force behind getting a lot of the things Zachariah wanted, shot down. There were two members that normally agreed with Zachariah on whatever he wanted and two members that agreed with her. The two that were in the middle could go either way and they liked and respected Kali more than Zachariah. Okay, they nick named her Hurricane Kali and she scared them sometimes, because when she wanted something, she went after it with both hands. But they still liked her more.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Kali, he's made it so you can't veto or stall things. The way things are, he's made it so your power's cut by half."  
"Son of a bitch. That bastard." Kali growled.  
"I know. I'm sorry Kali, you really didn't know?" Madison asked.  
"No, I didn't. How long is this going to last?"  
"The rest of the semester, plus the summer, so for the next seven or eight months." Madison replied.  
"Fuck a zombie." Kali hissed.  
Madison's laughter from the obscenity made Kali smile.

The following afternoon after school, she wasn't finding very much funny. Kali had been able to talk to the other board members and they all confirmed what Madison had said. Zachariah had her virtually bound and gagged. He could do practically anything he wanted now. She venomously told Gabriel and Dean what had happened while they had been at dinner the night before, before lapsing into a tirade of Hindi.  
Dean's mouth dropped open. "Kali!" he exclaimed, the look on his face one of horrified shock.  
Kali stopped to look at Dean. "You can understand me?"  
"I had a roommate in college from India. He taught me a little. And don't abuse the poor goat like that, what did it ever do to you?" Dean explained.  
Gabriel stifled a laugh, his stomach still in knots over last night.

The next few weeks felt like Ruby was alive all over again, but at least Zachariah wasn't gunning for money. Gabriel sat at the bar in The Indigo Moon, a chocolate martini in front of him. The stress of being Zachariah's bitch was getting to him and affecting other things in his life, mainly he and Dean's relationship. They were fighting more often, and Gabriel hated it. What he hated the most was not being able to explain why he was acting the way he was. Gabriel sipped his drink, the chocolate and vodka doing their best to help him relax. There was no one else in the bar, save him and the bartender, when the door opened. Gabriel finished his drink, not bothering to look up, and signaled for another drink. Gabriel liked the owner of the bar, Jo. She was smart, pretty to look at, funny and made one hell of a drink. If she couldn't make it, it didn't exist.

The person sat down next to him, snorting as Jo sat the martini glass in front of Gabriel. "Could you order a gayer drink? But then, given where you are currently, I'm not surprised..."  
"Fuck off Zach." Gabriel growled, before taking a sip and smiling in appreciation at Jo.  
"I don't think so." Zachariah replied. “I’ll have a Bud Light.” he told Jo. “You have another assignment.” He addressed Gabriel, putting a manila envelope and Ruby’s journal on the bar. He laid his arm over the book and pushed the envelope towards Gabriel. Jo dropped off Zachariah’s beer, he didn’t thank her.  
“What?” Gabriel asked, not touching the package.  
“I want to disband the Drama Department, they’re useless and taking up valuable money that can be used elsewhere. Put that in Balthazar’s desk.” Zachariah gestured to the envelope.

Gabriel felt his stomach drop out of his body like a rock. He picked up the envelope and looked inside. Inside was a bunch of porn. Not a huge deal, except that it really shouldn’t be on campus. Gabriel took a closer look and blanched.  
“This’ll do more then get him fired. It’ll get him thrown in jail and ruin him entirely. He’s my family, I can’t do this to him.”  
“So I guess Dean isn’t as important?” Zachariah asked. “And do I _look_ like I care what it does to Balthazar’s life? Just get it in his desk.” Zachariah stood and picked up the journal. “We need to talk somewhere more private, meet me in the alley.” He headed towards the back door.  
Gabriel glared daggers at his back before getting up to follow, pausing to grab a cuestick from the pool table. He heard Jo yell after him to stop, but paid her no heed.

Stepping out into the alley, he saw Zachariah waiting for him while tying his shoe, and stepped up behind him, cracking the cue stick over Zachairah’s head. Zachariah fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Gabriel grabbed the journal from the ground and turned around when he heard a cough. Jo was standing in the doorway.  
“Give me the cuestick. Get out of here, I didn’t see anything. Go through the front.” she said, holding out her hand.  
“Thanks Jo.” Gabriel said.  
“Don’t. Just leave.” Jo replied.

The first thing he was aware of was a steady beeping that got louder as he woke up. Opening his eyes was a chore and doing so hurt, Zachariah looked around, wondering where he was. It looked like the hospital. Why was he in the hospital?  
“Oh good, you’re awake.” a nurse said, walking in to check on his vitals. “How do you feel, any aches or pain?”  
Zachariah watched her groggily, the meds doing their job of keeping the pain at bay. “My head hurts a bit.”  
“That’s to be expected hon, you got hit on the head.” The nurse finished her examination of him, got him some water and told Zachariah to relax for now, the police would be by later to take his statement.

The detectives had just been by and Zachariah was livid. There was _no_ way what they said, happened. Zachariah swore he'd have the Detectives' badges. According to the police report, Zachariah was found in the alley of a nearby bar. He had been hit over the head and his wallet was gone. The bartender had found him when she went to take the trash out and called 911. They had also noted that his blood alcohol level had been high.  
“But that’s impossible! I wasn’t drunk. Gabriel hit me over the head and stole my book. Did you find a red leather journal there?"

The police said they hadn’t, and that they would look into this Gabriel person. Zachariah knew they were just humoring him. They would do no such thing. Zachariah huffed irritatedly and began to plan. He knew Gabriel was behind this somehow. It was time to take matters into his own hands. He had been let out of the hospital and was now on administrative leave at home. He would be able to go back in a week's time; the school district wanted to make sure he was all right for duty. Zachariah had spent the past few days puttering around his house, muttering to himself about Gabriel and how this was really all his fault. He had also found out that Kali was doing her best to overturn the gag he had on her, Zachariah was sure that there was little she could do, but it didn't really help matters at all. To help keep himself some what calm, Zachariah opened his gun safe in his study, and began to sort and clean his guns. The safe he had was rather large and held an assortment of guns and ammunition. He had taken apart and cleaned the rifles first and was cleaning one of his handguns when the thought first occurred to him, of using the gun on Gabriel.

Zachariah shook his head, not very fond of the idea. It was too messy, for starters, over too soon for another, plus as nice as the idea was starting to sound, there was just something _wrong_ with outright killing the guy. It just wasn't as satisfying. He was using his desk as a target to readjust the sight of a gun when an even better idea occurred to him. Zachariah set down the gun and began to search for his file.

Gabriel rolled his shoulders, trying to work the tension out. It worked a bit but most of the tension remained. He had left work early and had asked Dean to do the same and for Kali to come over at her earliest convenience. Both had called and said that they were on their way. Soon Dean let himself and Kali in, taking her purse and directing her towards the living room, asking if she wanted a drink. "Gabriel, you want anything?" Dean asked, as he hung Kali's purse on a hook on the wall.  
"I'm good." Gabriel held up his glass of tea.  
Kali nodded. "So am I." she said, as she sat down in the available chair  
"Okay then." Dean sat on the sofa next to Gabriel. "You said you had something to tell us."

Gabriel fished the journal out from under the sofa and placed it on the coffee table. "It's about that."  
"A book?" Dean snorted. "What a book got to do with me and Kali?"  
"It's a journal, and it's got to do with you and me actually."  
Dean picked up the book and began to flip through its contents, stopping every once in a while to read. "This is _Ruby's_ journal. How did you get a hold of this?"  
Gabriel sighed. "I stole it from Zachariah. Apparently Ruby not only knew that we were attracted to each other, but wrote it all down."  
"And this has what to do with the three of us?" Dean asked.  
"Zachariah blackmailed me with the journal. He threatened to make our relationship public and he threatened to take Kali down with us." Gabriel sipped his tea and looked at Kali. "That's why I arranged for dinner. It looks like you knew about Dean and I while he was still seventeen, and did nothing about it." Gabriel sat his glass down. "Did you Kali?"

Kali took the journal from Dean and looked through it herself. It was just like Gabriel said.   
"I had my suspicions, but I honestly didn't want to see it. Not back then, but I did when I came back home. It was screamingly obvious." She gave the journal back to Gabriel. "Is any of it true?"  
"We kissed when Dean was seventeen, but nothing serious happened until after Dean's graduation." Gabriel replied. "I'm sorry about what happened with the school board, Kali, I really am."  
"What made you change your mind?" Kali asked.  
"He threatened Balthazar. I couldn't take that and you two as well."

Zachariah blew away the dust and metal shavings from the gun. He had moved into his garage to work on the gun. He had gone over it with a fine toothed comb and had filed off the serial number. Zachariah put the gun back together and began to load the magazine. By this time next week, Gabriel would be taken care of one way or the other.

Breath in, breath out. Ash stretched and kicked out with his foot, before following up with a quick punch. It was early in the school day and almost no one was here. It was the main reason Ash chose to do his martial arts at school, that and the grass in the area next to the football field, felt really nice on his feet. As he went through the movements, a car came into the parking lot. Normally, Ash wouldn't think anything of it, except for the fact that the car belonged to Zachariah and he was damn early today. That was unusual for him. Ash watched as Zachariah went inside the school before deciding to follow.

At first Ash thought that Zachariah was headed for his office, it made sense, he had been gone for a week after all. But when Zachariah skipped his office all together, Ash's curiosity spiked even more. It turned to confusion as he quietly tailed Zachariah to Gabriel's class room. Ash ducked into the nearby alcove and waited for Zachariah as he went in. Why would the Superintendent need to get into a teacher's room? And why when the teacher wasn't there? Ash snuck over to the door and peeked in. Ash watched as Zachariah removed a gun from his jacket, wiped it down and put in Gabriel's bottom desk drawer.

Holy Fuck!

What the _hell_ was going on? Zachariah shut the drawer and Ash ducked away and raced as quietly as he could up the hallway. He got as far as the skylight in the entryway before he heard,  
"What are you doing here?" booming down the hall.  
Ash kept his back to Zach. _"Fuck!"_ he swore internally. _Okay...Stoner face. Stoner face. Come on Ash, you can do it."_ He thought, ignoring Zachariah as he stormed up to him, repeating his question. As Zachariah clapped a hand on his shoulder, Ash stopped staring into the skylight and gave Zachariah a zoned out, very relaxed look.  
"What?" he asked.  
"What are you doing here?" Zachariah growled.  
"Doing here?" Ash repeated.  
"In the hall." Zachariah bit out.  
Ash looked around, looking for all the world, like he really had just noticed where he was. "Oh. Nothing, man. I just like the light." he said, doing his best to project his old persona of "Stoner Hippie".  
Zachariah snarled at him and stormed away, muttering under his breath about the "hippie freak".

Ash breathed a sigh of relief once Zachariah was gone, waiting just a second, before bolting back to Gabriel's room. He opened the door and slipped in, walking over to the desk. Ash opened the drawer and buried under some papers, was the gun. Ash's eyes widened, again, _what the fuck was going on?_ Ash glanced at the door and very carefully, picked up the gun by the slide. It felt loaded. Ash had no idea what Zachariah was trying to do, but this was just too much. He took the gun from the room and went directly to his office, grateful that his new one, didn't cross paths with Zachariah's. Once in his office, Ash went to his desk and opened the bottom drawer, slipping the gun into the false bottom safe he had there and locking the drawer. Ash sat heavily in his chair, just what the fuck was going on, and what did Zachariah have against Gabriel?

When Gabriel and Dean got into work, they both found an announcement in their boxes about the search, along with several pages about being on the look-out for troubled teens and what to look for. Gabriel spared it a brief glance before tucking it under his arm.  
"Mr. Novak, you _really_ should look at that, it is rather important information after all." Zachariah called from the door way.  
Gabriel looked at Zachariah before flipping through the papers. "Today's announcement about the search, suicidal teens and the warning signs, bullies, sexual abuse, guns, illegal drugs, yada, yada. Happy?" he asked.  
"Oh, very." Zachariah smiled and waved with a wiggle of his fingers. "You have a _great_ day Mr. Novak. You too, Mr. Winchester." Zachariah replied as the two left.

"Oh yeah, that wasn't creepy _at all_." Dean muttered.  
"I know! And that _wave_! What was that about?" Gabriel exclaimed.  
"No idea. You notice that we're having _another_ search of the school?" Dean asked.  
"Yep. That, what the fourth one this year?" Gabriel grumbled. While he was all for making sure that the students and teachers alike were safe at school, this was taking it a tad too far. By law, the school had to have two searches, Zachariah had decided to add on a few more. Doing so was enough to make the school population feel itchy and closed in, and the police curious, because every time Zachariah wanted the dogs out on the campus.  
"The fourth or fifth." Dean replied.  
Both teachers sighed and continued on to their respective classrooms.  
Zachariah watched the other two men leave, the smile dropping instantly from his face. He had one more thing to do if this was going to work. He needed a patsy, one dumb enough to believe what he told him to do, Zachariah had one in mind.

The student he had in mind was walking down the hall just now. He was on the football team and, while he was very good at running a ball, it was about all he knew. The meathead was just barely passing his classes and Zachariah knew some of it had to do with some fast talking from the football coach. Zachariah grabbed the student on the way to his locker.  
"Young man, I need to speak with you please."  
"Okay..." the student replied as Zachariah pulled him into an empty classroom and began to talk.  
"I need you to do something for me. You have Mr. Novak for World History right?"  
"Yes sir." The student nodded.  
"I need you to report that he has a gun, that you've seen it."  
"He does? But why do you-" the student started to say.  
"Nevermind the why, just do it or you're off the football team. I can make that happen." Zachariah hissed. "Mr. Novak has a gun, you've seen it, you want to report it."  
The student nodded.  
"Good. Wait until after first period to come to the office."

After first period, the student came into the office and told the secretary what he had "seen". Zachariah, of course was there to hear all of it.  
"You're sure?" he asked.  
"Yes." the young man replied.  
"And it's a gun gun, not a toy?"  
"It looked really real."  
"And did Mr. Novak threaten you in any way with it?"  
The student nodded.  
"You can go back to class. Cassie, write him an excuse note and then contact the police, the search will need to be earlier than we thought." Zachariah said, all with a smile.

Yep, not creepy _at all_...

Soon the intercom crackled to life and Zachariah's voice echoed through out the school.  
"Attention students and teachers, we will be having a mandatory assembly in the gym on guns and gun safety. Teachers, please escort your students to the gym at this time."

Dean and Gabriel met up while on the way to the gym.  
"What's going on? Did they find something?" Dean asked softly.  
"I don't know." Gabriel replied, as they hearded their students to the gym  
"Jesus, maybe they did find something." Dean mumbled.  
"Don't worry." Ash piped up from behind them."Nothing to worry about, I took care of it."  
"Took care of what?" Gabriel asked as they sat down  
"Again, don't worry about it, it's more fun this way." Ash said.  
" _What's_ more fun this way?" Dean asked, turning to look at Ash.  
"Don't worry, you'll find out soon. Now turn around and pay attention to the assembly, it's important." Ash grinned, pointing towards Zachariah as he stood at the podium.  
"Find out about _what_?" Gabriel asked exasperatedly.  
"You'll see. Now pay attention." Ash growled, turning Gabriel's head towards the podium.

The assembly was really just for the students and was actually not being given by Zachariah, instead he announced that a school search would be done hall by hall during the assembly, and that they would be starting with the hall that held Gabriel's room, Mr. Singer's auto shop class, a couple of art classes, Rufus Turner's Latin class, and some computer classes. The dogs were brought out and they began to search. The classrooms were done one by one, Gabriel's was the second to last one. The dogs made their rounds, stopping briefly at the desk, before going on. Zachariah frowned as he watched. They were supposed to pick up on the gun powder and alert the officer.  
"Why are they moving on? They picked up something up." Zachariah asked.  
The officer looked at Zachariah. "And how could you tell?" he responded. The public normally wasn't let in on police procedure.  
"I know they smelled something! Open the drawer and see what it is!" Zachariah exclaimed.

The police officer sighed softly and reached for the drawer. He opened it and carefully looked inside, rifling a few papers. "There's nothing here." he announced.  
"What do you _mean_ there's nothing there?" Zachariah snarled "The dogs smelled gunpowder, he has a gun in there, he should be arrested for it."  
"Again, how would you know any of this?" the officer asked. He turned to Gabriel. "Is any of what he says true?"  
"No officer. I don't own a gun. It's been years since I've even handled one." Gabriel replied, a cold shiver shoving its way down his back.  
"He's lying!" Zachariah hissed, his eyes narrowing.  
"No, he isn't." came a voice from the door way. "And I can prove it, I've got the gun." Ash leaned against the doorframe.

Zachariah glared daggers at Ash, if looks could kill, Ash would be nothing but a pile of dust.  
"I saw the superintendent come in early today and plant the gun in Gabriel's desk." Ash told the officer. "I picked up the gun and took it to my office. Would you like to check officer?"  
The officer nodded and he, Ash, Zachariah and Gabriel walked to Ash's office.

The dogs walked and sniffed around the office. They came to the desk and paused at the door, whining excitedly. The officer tried the drawer and then asked for the key. Ash gave it to him.  
"There's a false bottom with a safe." He said, moving forward when the officer asked him to open the safe. The officer took out the gun, setting it on the desk.  
"I've never seen that gun before in my life." Gabriel said.  
"A likely story." Zachariah sneered. "Look for prints I bet we find yours."  
"I know mine are on there." Ash admitted.  
The officer called in the gun and bagged it. Zachariah, Gabriel, and Ash were escorted to the squad cars outside. Rufus and Bobby told Gabriel that they would let Dean know what was going on and meet them down at the precinct. The three men were waiting to be interviewed and the gun was being dusted for prints. Ash's prints were found on the slide of the gun, matching what he had told the police, but the rest of the gun was clean. Until they took it apart and checked the bullets. Each of the bullets had a partial print on it and they all matched Zachariah.

This, along with the fact that the bullets were highly illegal armor piercing rounds and the gun's serial number had been removed were enough for Zachariah to be arrested right then and there.  
"Zachariah McConnell, you are under arrest for the possession of illegal arms and tampering with a firearm. You have the right to remain silent..." The office stated as he snapped the cuffs onto one of Zachariah's wrists.  
Zachariah snarled in rage. "This is all _your_ fault!" he snapped, lunging for Gabriel. "I know it is! You and your fucking fag of a boyfriend killed her and then covered it up! My Ruby would still be alive if it weren't for you two!"  
The officer tackled Zachariah to the ground and slapped the other cuff onto his other wrist. Hauling him to his feet, the officer frog marched Zachariah out of the room and down to the processing area on the floor below.

The ensuing trial was a fiasco. Zachariah was insisting that Dean and Gabriel had killed Ruby, that she had found out about their relationship while Dean was still a student and they killed her to keep her quiet. He was also ranting about a journal she had kept as proof and that Gabriel had stolen it, after hitting him over the head. When questioned, Gabriel said that he didn't have the slightest clue what Zachariah was talking about. The police had the report on Zachariah's attack, but the bartender had never seen or heard of Gabriel before. Searching Gabriel and Dean's home turned up nothing as well. Gabriel had burned the journal to ashes after he told Kali and Dean what was going on. The ashes were then thrown into three different rivers in town. All three claimed no knowledge of any journal.

A search of Zachariah's home uncovered several journals worth of his rantings about Dean and Gabriel and his plans to take them and their friends and family down, along with the blackmailing of Gabriel. Between that and the weapons he kept, several that were illegal, an amazing array of charges were brought against Zachariah. But none of it would go to trial, due to Zachariah's being ruled unfit to go to trial, due to reasons of insanity. Between the police report from the bar, all of his strange behavior at school and several of the teachers documenting it, his own journals and Zachariah's insistence of a journal that didn't exist, no matter where they looked, he was deemed unfit to stand trial and put away in a mental institution until such time as he was.

"Do you think he'll ever be fit to stand trial?" Dean asked as they pulled up to the institution that Zachariah was incarcerated at. Dean looked through the Impala's windshield, at the building. It was a rather modern affair, tan brick, three stories tall and surrounded by lush green grounds and other buildings that housed other inmates and activities for them. If it wasn't for the bars on the windows and the electrified fence with razor wire on top, the buildings and grounds could have passed for a rather posh retreat and resort.  
"I doubt it." Gabriel replied, unbuckling his seat belt. "Besides, there's enough evidence in his own writing to keep him locked away for a damn long time. Be a while before he gets out, if ever." Gabriel got out of the car and came around to Dean's side. "Sure you won't come with?" He asked, leaning in the open window.  
"Very. I'll be here when you get out." Dean replied.  
Gabriel gave him a quick kiss and walked in through the front doors, up to the receptionist's desk.

"Hi, I'm Mr. Novak. I have an appointment with Dr. Lanette at 3 o'clock." he said, showing the receptionist his license. The receptionist took the license for a closer look and handed it back soon after.  
"Of course, Mr. Novak, sign in please and have a seat. Dr. Lanette will be with you shortly." She replied, and handed him the sign in book and a pen. Gabriel signed his name and sat down to wait. He wasn't waiting long before a tall African-American woman, wearing a dark pair of trousers, white blouse and dark suit jacket with a white doctor's coat over it, came into the waiting room.

"Mr. Novak." she called, looking around, even though Gabriel was the only one there besides the receptionist.  
"Right here." Gabriel replied, standing up and coming to her. "Dr. Lanette?" He asked, holding out his hand.  
Dr. Lanette smiled, shaking his hand. "Hello, I'm Pheadra Lanette. I'm Mr. McConnell's primary doctor, it's a pleasure to meet you."  
"Pleasure to meet you too, Doctor."

Dr. Lanette led him out of the waiting room. "We don't get many visitors for Mr. McConnel. He isn't in the best of shape, mentally speaking."  
"You said as much on the phone." Gabriel replied as they turned down a hall. "What exactly is wrong with him, Doctor?"  
They walked down another hallway and Dr. Lanette swiped her card. "He's exhibiting signs of several different psychosis, he isn't really the man you knew and he may not recognize you." She said as the door unlocked itself and they were admitted to the ward. Each room here housed one patient. The walls and floors were padded and the doors were reinforced steel with a small window that had a slide away cover, for viewing. The doctor stopped at one door. "He's showing signs of Borderline Personality Disorder. He has bouts of narcissistic rage, extreme paranoia, and paranoid delusions. Are you sure you still want to see him, Mr. Novak?"

Gabriel nodded. "I need to."  
"Alright then. We've got him in here because he tried to bite one of the orderlies, and we've in the middle of trying a new dosage of his medication." Dr. Lanette slid back the metal window covering and let Zachairah know he had a visitor.  
There was a soft derisive snort from inside the room. "Who would visit me?" Zachairah replied.  
"A coworker." Dr. Lanette answered, before stepping aside to let Gabriel come forward.  
"Hello Zachairah." he said, looking into the room.  
Zachairah could only see his eyes, but that's all it took to set him off.  
" _You!_ You did this to me! It's _your_ fault I'm in here!" Zachariah began screaming and slammed himself against the door.  
Gabriel yanked himself away from the other side, gasping, his eyes wide.

Dr. Lanette slapped her hand down on the button on the wall to call the orderlies and pulled Gabriel aside as two tall, burly men came running down the hall, a straight jacket and syringe in hand. The needle was handed to the doctor right before they opened the door and rushed Zachariah, pinning him down and stuffing him into the straight jacket. They restrained him while the shot was given. The medication soon began to take effect, Zachariah's ravings becoming slurred and tapering off before he slumped to the ground, asleep. 

Dr. Lanette escorted Gabriel out to the waiting room. "I've _never_ seen him react that violently before, not even when that nice Indian woman was here, and he didn't like her. What did you _do_ to him?" She asked, as Gabriel signed out.  
Gabriel wasn't surprised at all that Kali had been here, she had always been good at watching her back.   
"Me, personally? Nothing. He just fixated on me, I guess."  
 _Technically_ it was true, Gabriel really had done nothing, Zachariah just thought he had. Okay, he _had_ hit him with the cue stick, but there wasn't any proof of that, and Gabriel wasn't about to go volunteering information that said otherwise. He wished Dr. Lanette a good day and walked out the door, happy to be outside in the sun.

Gabriel got into the Impala and Dean drove them away.  
"So how was he?" Dean asked.  
"He's not leaving here for a long, long time." Gabriel said, turning the radio on and searching for a station.  
"Good." Dean smirked when Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head." came in over the speakers. "Mental Health album, good choice."  
"I thought so." Gabriel smiled.

The End.


End file.
